Rising of the Demi-Human Hero
by Aztez Fan
Summary: A pale skinned goat Demi-Human with an affinity for fire magic finds himself as the legendary Shield Hero. However, he understands how people see his kind and The Shield Hero. With the deck stacked against him he will have to save the world, even though it is all too willing to throw him to the wolves. Rewrite up.
1. Chapter 1

Gunther sat upright in bed as the first rays of sunlight shined onto his face, blocking the light with an arm. Opening his eyes he sighed as he knew it was morning and jumped off the bed feet first to the floor and stretched to pop his back, he had a long day to go through. Getting dressed he stared into a copper mirror to check his horns and smiled to see that they were okay. "Gunther! Get out here and help with the crops you a damn billy goat, they won't grow themselves you know!" The Demi-Humans smile faded as he frowned, his master was calling him.

"I'm coming out Master!" He said laying the copper mirror back on the table and ran out of the small shack he called home. Outside was his Owner, he was not the kindest of men but at least he was fair for the most part. Gunther's master looked at him with a disappointed glare "How many times do I have to tell you, Don't sleep in!" Gunther winched a little at his master shouting, it's not his fault he's so tired after working the fields all day. "I-I'm sorry master, I'll do better to wake up next time." He said stuttering a first.

His master looked down on him, Gunther was very short for his age, only 5'1, while his master was 6'5 and was a very imposing figure. After a few seconds, his master sighed "_Agh _Whatever, just make sure you get to work." He told Gunther who nodded in understanding while looking at the ground knowing he had upset his master. Seeing this the tall man thought of something as an incentive to lighten his slave's mood, a slave works harder when they have something to gain after all. "You know, if you get your work done, I'll let you visit the Library."

Gunther eyes widened in surprise and looked up at his master with eyes full of joy "R-Really?" he asked quietly. His master nodded "Yes, I know how much you like books" He told Gunther with the ghost of a smile on his face, something the Demi-Human rarely saw, before glaring again "But you better get to work if you want to go alright."

Nodding his head quickly he ran off to the farm shed to get his tools. Gunther then spent his time watering crops and making sure none of them had spoiled or showed signs of being eaten. At times he would find weeds that needed removing and groaned when he had to pull out the shovel to dig a particularly stubborn weed out of the ground.

Once he was done with that looked across the field and smiled at his hard work. Gunther stiffed however when the sound of a growl alerted him and he turned around. Right there was a wolf that was snarling at him with hungry eyes that was stepping ever so slowly closer. The Slave froze at the sight of the beast before raising his hand in reflex as the wolves so this as its chance to kill him.

With a sudden yep the wolf few backs into a tree, Gunther having cast a small fireball at his attacker. With its fur on fire, the wolf starts panicking before an arrow pierces its head straight through its left eye. Turing around the slave saw his master with a crossbow and lowered it as he walked over to Gunther's side as the two watched the beast burn.

"Odd, I've never seen wolves this close to the farm before in a long time..." His master commented before bring his attention back to Gunther "While im glad you defended yourself, you know not to use your magic right?" His master asked in a disappointed tone. Fidgeting with his hands the slave felt nervous "Y-Yes, I remember..." he said knowing slaves were not supposed to know or use magic. The only reason he knows is that he was born with its and could cast it every so often that his master felt safe enough to leave him be, so long as he does not burn anything of course

"Good, while your use of magic is, discouraging, I have to say its good that you know it. If only to make sure you don't get killed during work." His master told Gunther before looking around the farm. "You did a good job, guess I'll uphold my end then." The slave had to hold in his excitement, every time his master let him go the Library Gunther would look and read as many books that struck his interest.

After he and his master took the wolf into the house to be skinned Gunther was given his slave ring so that people can know who he belonged to and went off into town. Once he walked through the gates and past the guard after showing them his ring he looked around at all the many different shops, store's, market's and house there are that people walked in and out of. Making his way past many humans who gave him a disapproving look Gunther found what he was looking for and went inside.

Gunther always took the time to take in how big the library was, while not as big as some others he had heard of in the capital. It saddened him that can't ever get near that library however, it was run by the church and he doubted they would let a Demi-Human inside its walls. Hearing a cough he turned and saw the librarian who looked at him "Gunther right?"

The slave nodded, to which the Librarian smiled "Welcome back Gunther, it has been about a week since you last came by and I got a little worried." Gunther shrugged "Well I had to work a lot more recently, master want to make sure that his crops are okay and ready to be harvested." The Librarian gave a looked that seemed to convey some worry.

"Um, well there was a wolf that tried to attack me but master shot it in the eye with his crossbow so I'm fine!" he told them, leaving out the fact he set the wolf on fire, the librarian did not need to know he could cast magic. Bring a hand to their chin they hummed slightly "I, see...Well at least your alright, I shouldn't take more of your time to take a look around for something to read Gunther."

The slave jumped up in the air "Yes!" He shouted out load before being hushed by the unamused Librarian. He smiled awkwardly "Sorry." he said quietly before walking over to the bookshelves. Using a finger to keep track of the titles he read each one carefully, looking for a book that interested him the most. Soon he stopped his finger on a boom called 'Legend of the Four Heroes'.

He remembers this one, his father and mother used to tell him about the heroes before he slept. Each one of them had a legendary weapon they are named after. Finding a place to sit down he opened up the book and read through it, the sword hero was said to have great strength, the spear hero was known to value and protect their friends and the bow hero was always there to fight for the justice of those who are wronged. Each of these three heroes where great and kind people, but they did have some flaws which surprised him as he read.

The church always spoke highly of these three as if they had no flaws, so to read a book that spoke that they did was odd. The sword hero despite being so strong he was always looking for ways to get stronger, at times at the expense of others. The bow hero was extremely stubborn, almost never admitting he had done something wrong and would often not listen to advice that would help.

Gunther found the spear hero to have the worst flaws, they were very naive to the point of bordering stupidity and were easily manipulated. Despite these flaws, however, he did not hold any of this against the heroes. To him, them having flaws made them more heroic than simply being the near flawless saints that the church makes them out to be.

Last but not least was the shield hero, someone the church demonizes but he himself idolizes. His parents told him that the Shield hero was the one who helps Demi-humans when no one else did, protecting them from danger and being kind over all. The church makes the Shield hero out to be some destructive evil demon, but he knew better than to listen to their dogma.

As Gunther turned the page to see what the book had to say about the shield hero he found the page empty. Confused he turned the pages back and confirmed that the first parts of the book did have writing in them. In fact, it read more like sort character bio's for each of the heroes now that Gunther thought about it. Yet every time he went to the page that should have the shield heroes bio it was simply blank.

Blinking Gunther scratched his head, this was did not seem right, the slave was about to go and ask the librarian about why they would what seemed to be an unfinished book on the shelf before he noticed it start to glow. "W-What The-!" That was all he could shout out as the light shined over him and in a flash he was gone.

The Librarian heard Gunther's sudden panicked shouting and ran over to see what was wrong only to look around to find no trace of the Demi-human. Worried they looked down to find the book Gunther had been reading wide open on a blank page on the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

Gunther felt like he was falling, the Demi-Human starting to feel dizzy as he fell down through the light that surrounded him. Soon enough he stopped falling and fell flat on the ground. As he got up he heard many gasps of shock and a few quiet prayers. "A Demi-Human?!" Gunther heard as he tried to get off the floor and see what was going on.

To his surprise, he saw a group of priests in front of him who looked slightly worried, staring at him. Soon the head of the group snapped out of his shock "The Summoning worked despite the Demi-Human but were never the lest great full for it." The priest said as Gunther finally got to his feet, still trying to wrap his head around the situation he was in.

"Please brave heroes, our world in grave danger, please help us save it form pure evil!" Gunther for his part was now even more confused, heroes, pure evil, the world is in danger. All these thoughts flowed in and out of his mind before hearing different voices groan as well. "Who are...No way" He said seeing three people's in strange clothing who were just as surprised as he was. But what caught his attention was their weapons. They had in order, a spear, a sword, and a bow.

With wide eyes, Gunther stared at what he assumed were three of the four heroes of legend and spoke out quietly with no little amount of amazement "Y-You're the Spear, Sword, and Bow Heroes, but where's-" At this, the slave felt something on this right arm and looked down to see what it was. Gunther stood stiff as he saw what was on his wrist, in place of the slave ring was a small shield with a green gem in its core.

This threw Gunther into a mix of excitement and fear, he, a Demi-Human, was the Shield Hero!? As the slave found himself unable to even find a way to fully grasp what was going on the priest spoke again, not given the stunned Demi-Human any mind while looking a the other three heroes. "Please brave heroes, our is in dire need saving"

Gunther was barely focusing on hearing the speech as he was trying to find a reason, any reason at all for him being chosen as one of the four heroes. "Is this for real?" One of the heroes asked, unsure themselves of what is happening. The Bow hero tugged on his bowstring and asked the priest "What do you mean the world is in need of saving?"

The Priest simply sighed "The Story is long and complicated, but suffice it to say you are the four cardinal heroes and you have been summoned here using an ancient ritual" Gunther looked down at the floor and saw the circle they were standing in that was clearly glowing with magical power. "Our is in a most fragile state," Said the led priest to them "and it teeters on the brink of destruction"

All that did not sound good at all to Gunther, the priest words only feeding into the slave growing fear. "So we beg you, Oh brave heroes, please lend us your aid!" Gunther stood there and looked over to the three heroes to see what they had to say. The spear hero closed his eyes and shrugged "Well, I guess I could at least hear you guys out." That right there made the slave smile, seems the spear hero is like the book said, ready to help when needed.

The Sword and Bow heroes seemed much more reluctant, however, "Forget it" the sword hero said making Gunther stare at him in shock, did he not hear how he was needed? The Bow hero also spoke out in agreement "I also refuse" The priest seemed worried and Gunther was too, now sliding his hand across his shield nervously.

The Spear hero seemed to a take a moment to think "You can send us back homeworld, right?" The Spear hero asked "Do that and maybe we'll talk" Gunther could seem the mood was souring quickly and simply stay quiet even as the Sword hero raised up his blade pointed at the priests.

"You brought the four of us here with our consent," The hero said in slight anger "don't you even feel the least bit guilty about it?" The Bow hero spoke next "Not to mention if you throw us out as soon as we restore peace, we would have done all that work nothing." The Bow hero said with concern.

The Spear hero seemed to be on board somewhat with the other two heroes , none of them have seemed to have noticed Gunther yet "Hmm, How willing are you to accommodate our requests, depending on your answer, may end up as your enemies instead of your allies." The Spear heroes threat held weight to it and was not without reason, but it still did not sit too well with the slave.

They seemed to be making demands without even knowing what's fully going on, yes he had little idea as well but it still supposed him all the same. The three heroes also were taking this quite well, all things considered, much better than how he was at least. "Please good sirs before I say anymore we'd like you to have an audience with the king of Melromarc," The priest said walking over to them, still not looking at Gunther. "You can negotiate your rewards with him directly, so please..."

The Sword hero lowed his blade "Alright, fine then." The bow hero rubbed his chin "I, suppose we'll consider their offer" The Spear hero smiled as he started walking "Sure doesn't matter who we talk to our demands won't change." Gunther watched them walk off with the priest's, feeling that the three heroes were being a little too full of themselves.

He noticed a few harsh glances from the priest's, their eyes showing they did not at all trust him. "Well, are you going to follow?" This put the spotlight on Gunther and he saw the other three heroes stare at him, mostly his horns that were on top his head sticking out of his hair. "...Wow, guess we're really in another world then..." The spear hero said making Gunther feel really out of place among the humans and unsure how to respond but ran over to fallow them none the less.

As they descended up the stairs Gunther stopped and looked outside the tower window in awe. Right outside was what he knew was the set of power for the whole kingdom, tall buildings, and trees as far as his eye can see with mountains off in the distance. "Look, this world really is different from ours huh?" the Bow hero said as they paused to take in the sight before them.

Gunther himself smiled at it, he had never been to the capital, but seeing it from up here was simply breathtaking "Yeah, it's home alright." _"And what I have to protect..."_ Thought the slave uneasy as the Sword hero held up his hand to his chin. "Must be a Mediterranean climate, judging by the wind it seems to be mild at most" Gunther looked over at the Sword hero and tilted his head "Mediterranean, what's that?"

The Three heroes looked at him before the Bow hero snapped his fingers "Oh right, you would not know what it is would you." The other heroes acknowledge this before the priest coughed into his hand. "Oh sorry, we'll get going" Said the Spear hero as they all started walking up the stairs again.

As they made their way the Spear hero looked back over to Gunther "So, your a Demi-Human right?" The slave nodded "Yeah, A Goat Demi-Human to be specific." He said, pointing to the horns on his head. The Spear hero hummed to himself in thought before smiling "So that means there are different types of Demi-Humans then?" Gunther noticed that the Spear hero had an odd look that made him feel a little uncomfortable, something about it did not seem right to him. "Um..well yes, their a lot of types of Demi-Humans from tigers to wolves and even Lizards."

The Spear hero seemed very pleased by this and looked up at the ceiling while whispering something to himself that he couldn't hear. Gunther found this really weird, but he thought it was better if he did not ask. After what seemed like forever they made it to a courtyard, walking through it the slave stopped as he looked up to see a woman in a window staring down at them. Gunther had a feeling tho that she was looking at him and his instincts were telling him that was not a good thing.

Thus he quickly started walking again, tearing away his view from them and went to catch up with the other heroes, feeling the women's gaze only fade when he was out of her view. Soon they found themselves at the king's throne room, it was about this time that Gunther felt like most of the eye's were on him, the guards watching his every move like hawk's while gripping their spears tightly.

By the time they stopped in front of the king the Demi-Human now Shield hero felt a large weight of eyes, judging everything about him and had an air of disgust to them. Non more so then the king himself, the glare he gave Gunther nearly made his blood run cold, as if the king could simply snap his fingers and have him dragged away from his sight.

Everyone who was present, other than the three heroes, all clearly had made their judgments of him. He was nothing more than a Demi-Human in their eyes after all, and being the shield hero did not help at all with this. The King then suddenly removed his sharp gaze from him giving Gunther much needed relief as the King spoke.

"So, you young men are the four cardinal heroes of ancient legend," The King said, occasionally gazing back at Gunther every so often "This is the Kingdome Melromarc and I am her King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, welcome brave heroes." Gunther for his part knew that last part was directed towards the other three heroes. "Please, Identify yourselves," The King asked them all. The first to speak was the Sword hero "Ren Amaki, I'm a high school student and I'm 16 years old." The next was Spear hero "Motoyasu Kitamura, a college student of 21 years of age." After that was the Bow hero Who smiled "Itsuki Kawasumi, I'm still in high school and I'm 17"

Gunther stood there blinked, so those are the names of the three heroes, he waited still and was about to speak himself but the quick look the king gave him made him stay silent as Aultcray addressed the heroes. "Now, I suppose I need to explain as to why we brought you here."

Aultcray then told them of an ancient prophecy that spoke of a series of invasions destructive forces that, they have been called waves. Should this calamity not be stopped the waves will end up ending the whole world. The counties can tell when a wave starts do to each having an ancient dragon hourglass. With this, the Kingdom had been able to predict and prepare by gathering as many knights and traveling adventures in order to hold off the wave, beating it. Sadly they can't hope to do this again, as every wave will only bring with it stronger foes, and the next one will come in but a months time.

Sighing Aultcray looked at them "We have underestimated the potency of the waves, once we had actually experienced the first we realized we could barely survive another one. Thus our only hope lay with the four cardinal Heroes, who with their power could counter them. So we followed the Legend and summoned you, but now we have no time to lose."

Gunther had finally digested all of this, this was way too much for him to handle at the moment and was breathing quietly to calm down. Looking over to he looked at the three Heroes who seemed to think hard about this With a swing of his blade Ren spoke first "Okay then I think we get the gist of it, anyway I'm sure you didn't bring us here thinking we'd save the world for free." The Demi-Human leaned over a little at that, well if their going to risk their lives then payment would be needed he reasoned to himself, still he felt a little peeved that they were being so calm and a little exploitative about all this when he can barely keep himself together.

A tall gray hair man smiled "Of course not, once you repel all the waves I can assure you we shall reward you most handsomely." The look the man gave Gunther told him he was going to be left out of that deal. Motoyasu smiled confidently "Yeah, well it would seem we have no other choice but to take you at your word" Ren simply held his calm steely demeanor "Long as you don't renege we'll work for you, but don't think for a moment that you can tame us" That right there got Gunther very worried, they might not try it on them, but that's not to say they will hold that standard to himself.

"Exactly, we won't put up with you looking down on us" Gunther stayed quite as he had been this entire time, not wanting to talk out of line for worry of being reprimanded. This, they all seemed very smug for people who are supposed to save the world, but beggars can't be choosers after all and they're stuck with what they got.

"I can trust that we have reached an agreeable arrangement." The king said to them "I would ask you brave to now check your statuses" Gunther blinked at that, status? Ren looked at the other next to him "You guys dense, it should have been the first thing you saw when you got here" Motoyasu rolled his eyes "Oh out a sock in it, stop acting like you know everything"

Ren, however, calmly told them to look at the bottom left of their vision. The heroes looked at their own space and looked surprised, Gunther, however, looked around but couldn't find anything and simply stood there confused. "Level one huh, that fairly disconcerting isn't it" Itsuki said as the spear hero moved a hand up to his chin "Yeah no kidding, who can tell if we can even fight like this." Gunther finally spoke up raising his hand up, slightly regretting it as the King gave him a glare full of disdain and annoyance. "Yes?" the King said, his voice showing that the longer he wastes his time more likely he would get in trouble. "U-Um, what is status exactly?"

The Gray-haired man next to the King answers his question, though his tone clearly told he would rather not. "It's called status magic, an ability exclusive to the heroes, something I doubt you know anything about." That got the other heroes attention as they seemed to finally notice the tense atmosphere that was surrounding Gunther. "Right...So where do we go, what's the first step?" Motoyasu asked giving Gunther a glance that said they'll talk later which reassured the Demi-Human, calming him down a bit.

"You are to set out on an adventure to develop and upgrade the legendary weapons you have been equipped with." Gunther looked down at the shield on his wrist, so it not even at its full potential yet, that greatly discouraged him more than anything. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure we can wield other weapons until these are usable." Gunther sighed knowing full well that was not a choice they had if what he read about the hero's was correct. "So, I guess once we're ready we can form a party." The bow hero said, the thought of not being alone on this journey made Gunther's worry and fear slowly melt away.

What they were told next made those hopes wash away, seems that grouping up will cause the weapons to repeal each other, something he did not read in the book that brought him here. So working tougher is very bad and might hinder their chances of success. Gunther frowned at this, so much for teamwork to make up for their short comings.

The King then spoke once more "The sun is about to set, rest here and begin your quest tomorrow." He told them, supporting Gunther as the king did not glare at him this time. "In the meantime, we'll gather the best of the best to form your party's" A young women walked up to them politely "We have quarters prepared for you all, please, right this way sirs." The three heroes followed suit, Gunther unsure of whether or not to fallow them saw the King glare at him while motioning him to leave with the other heroes.

Not taking a moment to waste Gunther ran off to join the rest of the heroes, but not before coming back into the throne room and bow to the king first. Aultcray raised an eyebrow at that, but seemed quite pleased with the display of respect he was given before going back to being bitter and pointing him to leave, to which Gunther happy obliged.

So far, things are going a lot better then Gunther thought they would have, people still stared at him and his horns before starting to whisper among themselves, words like Animal and Demon reached his ears making him try to look as inconspicuous as he could. He did not know what was going to happen next, but knowing how things are he might as well expect the worst.


	3. Chapter 3

Gunther and the other three Heroes had all finished eating in the room they were staying in for the night. The meal was the best thing the Demi-Human had ever had the chance of tasting in a long time, now he understands fully why good food is so expensive. Soon after everyone had their fill they all started to unwind.

"I guess when your heroes of legend, you get special treatment." The Spear hero said as he sat down on the bed. "That girl who showed us here was cute too!" Gunther did not understand what Motoyasu meant by that, yes she looked and acted nice but he did not think she was cute. The bow hero then commented on the food "While it did taste unusual our dinner was quite sumptuous."

Gunther only nodded "Yeah, it's the best thing I have tasted that's for sure." As he said that the Spear hero held his hand up to his chin "Okay so I'm not sure about you guys but does seem like the video game Emerald Online." Gunther gave Motoyasu a look of confusion "Video game?"

"Oh yeah you wouldn't know what that is, it a huge MMORPG back where we are from." The Spear hero told him while resting his spear on his shoulder. "What are you talking about?" That got their attention as Gunther and Motoyasu turned their heads to face Itsuki "This isn't some online game it's a new console game I'm playing called Dimension Web."

This made both of them confused and before Gunther could ask Ren interjected "Your both wrong," Now the three of them were facing the sword hero "everything about this place is identical to a VR MMO Brave Star Online." By this point Gunther was not stumped, he had no idea what they were talking about, the only thing he could discern from this is they though his world was some kind of game to them.

The Spear hero sighed as he got up and rested the bottom of his spear on the floor. "Okay, let's sort this out, Ren do you really mean an actual, literal VR MMO?" Ren simply crossed his arms "Yeah." Motoyasu then looked over to the Bow hero and the sword hero "You guys do know what this means right?" Itsuki crossed his arms as well "A sci-fi game I'm familiar with explored the concept"

Ginther simply looked owlishly at them "I have no idea what you guys are even talking about so please explain." The Spear hero looked at the Demi-Human and then back at the other two heroes, holding his lower chin in thought "Okay, first let us compare common knowledge. Who's face in on the 1000 yen bill?" The shield hero wondered what they meant by bills, was that some kind of currency?

Raising his spear he lowered it as all three of the heroes said dramatically different names that Gunther did not even think he could pronounce correctly. After they said this the heroes stared at each other before voicing their confusion. Soon they were talking about different topics from wars to the leaders of their country and even favorite people. This left Gunther to take in all he could about their worlds as the heroes conversed about this issue.

By the time they were done they all had come to the agreement that they were all from different versions of the country 'Japan'. Not only that but they all sounded radically different from hero to hero, leaving Gunther to just stand by like a spectator watching this unfold before him. "So, there are different worlds for the same one? Sound like something out of a storybook." The shield hero said in amazement at the thought "Yeah I just thought we might have been from different eras, guess not."

Gunther heard what the Spear hero said and groaned as it all sank in, this way more complicated than it needed to be. "I'm still wondering how you have played games that are so similar to my world? I mean I'm still wrapping my head around the fact I'm now the shield hero so all of this is just making my head hurt." He then noticed The bow hero looking at him strangely "Um, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Sorry, it's just the fact you're the shield hero that's all, even the king and his advisers were acting really disrespectfully to you back in the throne room," Itsuki told Gunther, surprising him that they even noticed. "Yeah I noticed that too, what was up with that anyway, I know the shielder class is for losers but the way they treated you in there was a bit harsh," Motoyasu said now facing the Demi-Human. Ren also chipped in "While I do agree the shielder class sucks, for the most part, their treatment of you should not have been like that."

Gunther stayed quite when they said that and gripped his pants tightly. The Spear hero saw this and asked in a concerned tone "Is, something wrong?" The shield hero did not say a word as he took a deep breath as he looked at them "How are all staying so calm?!" That question took them off guard "What you mean?" Ren said as Gunther just stared in disbelief "I mean, your all just so calm and collected despite the fact that you have been summoned to a world that's being invaded! Do not care or something!?"

Gunther raised his voice and stood up from his chair making the other heroes look at him in surprise given how soft-spoken and quite the Demi-Human had been so far. "Yesh what's your problem?" Motoyasu asked wondering why the Demi-Human was acting so aggressive all of a sudden. Gunther simply gritted his teeth, now clearly angry "Problem? Problem?! My problem is that you guys think this all just a game and are acting so damn arrogant, making demands without seeming to even care about the fact my world is being invaded by monsters!"

"Dude calm down, why are you so angry right now?" The bow hero asked, feeding into Gunther anger as he snapped "I'm angry at the fact you assholes are all acting less like heroes and more like mercs who care only about money!" Ren stepped in and stared at Gunther "Hey, you're with us on this quest too, so why are you sorry worried?" That was the last straw for Gunther as he shouted "Why? Why am I worried?! I'm worried because I'm just a 14-year-old Demi-Human farm boy with everything to lose who was chosen as the Shield Hero, the most hated and despised of the Four heroes, and I don't know what to do!"

Gunther had stopped his screaming by now before falling back into his chair, sobbing into his hands as he cried, the pressure of everything having finally caught up to him. As Gunther broke down the three heroes looked at each other and felt horrible, now realizing that the Shield hero was pretty much just a kid. Motoyasu looked unsure of what to do, Gunther's sobbing tugging at his feelings greatly "Hey, look we're sorry, we couldn't have known alright," Gunther looked up, tears running down from his eyes as he listened to the Spear hero. "So please take some deep breaths to yourself down."

Gunther did as he was asked, breathing deeply as he calmed down and wiping his eyes off with his sleeve. "Better?" The Spear hero asked after the Demi-Human started breathing normally again. Gunther simply nodded silently, still a little scared right now. "Good, now, let's get to helping you out with your skills. So guys any ideas on what to use as an example for him?" Itsuki spoke out "Have you ever played tabletop roleplay before?" Ren looked at him strangely while the Spear hero also gave him the odd look. "What? It's the closest thing I could think of."

Gunther thought for a moment before nodding "Y-Yeah I have, was always pushed into the support role most of the time by the other kids." Motoyasu smiled "Then you already have an idea of what the Shielder classes role is, while the class itself sucks it's not without its uses." Ren started speaking "The shielder is meant to protect their party and absorb incoming damage while providing buffs so the rest of the group can fight more effectively."

"But given the class does not level to well at higher levels, it just kinda ended up as a dead class that almost no one plays due to not being fun." Itsuki finished up their speech, letting Gunther keeping this all in mind. "Alright, that does not sound all that bad. I just need to know what my stats are and I can figure out what I need to improve." Gunther said as he felt much more relaxed.

"Well, why not just look at your stats right now for yourself...you can see them, right?" Gunther looked down at the floor when Motoyasu said that. It took the three heroes a few moments to realize that the shield hero did not know how to access his stats. Ren thought carefully before snapping his fingers "Maybe he can't see his stats the same way we can."

Everyone looked at the Sword hero for an explanation "You see since he's from this world he does not understand RPG's as we do in ours, thus he must have a different way of reading his status than us." The other two heroes felt that was a good enough answer, but they still did not know how the shield hero can use his status magic. Soon Itsuki spoke up "Hey, um, what's your name?"

The Demi-Human remembered he did not tell them his name yet "U-Um, Gunther, my names Gunther." The Bow hero nodded "Right, listen, Gunther, focus on your shield and keep your hand open." The shield hero tilted his head wondering why Itsuki asked him to do that but the Bow hero simply reassured him that it would help.

Taking a deep breath he stared at the shield on his arm, the green gem starting to glow softly as he held his hand open. Soon he felt something in his hand and looked over to see a Journal titled "The Shield Hero". Gunther just blinked and looked up to see that the other heroes were just as dumbstruck as he was. The Spear hero looked at Itsuki with wide eyes "How did you know that would work?"

The Bow hero just shrugged " I don't know, just had a feeling that it would that's all." Gunther looked back down at the Journal and opened up to the first page, on it was an index that listed a title and page number. Bio and Party Status, Skills and Spells, Items, Monster Encyclopedia, and World lore. Reading it all he turned to the Bio and Party Status page and saw an illustration of himself along with his name, age, race, clothing, level and a short bio that read "A Goat Demi-Human farmhand who has been summoned as one of the Four cardinal heroes, has a thing for fire."

Under that Gunther saw his stats and everyone gathered around to review what he was working with. His attack was basically pathetic at a messily one, his defense was fairly considerable 36, not surprising given he is the shield hero. Interestingly though it seems that due to him being a goat Demi-Human he has some racial perks. That being plus 2 defense and plus 2 health. This made his already very strong Defense add up to 38. His agility was quite low at 9 and on its own, his health was 22, but with his racial perk it added up to 24.

Then there was a stat that simply read Unknown at 10. When Gunther asked the other heroes said they had the same Unknown stat. "Wow, looks like your a tanky little bastard aren't you." The Spear hero said as they looked at the Demi-humans stats. "Yeah, looks like I'm not going to be taking much damage from most attacks for a while, that's good," Gunther said as he turned to the skills and spells page.

On the page was a small tree of shield skills with the small shield being the only one unlocked. As for spells, he saw that his fireball spell was there much to his surprise, the spell dealt 3 damage on impact and 1 damage over time so long as the target is on fire. "At least you can attack from range with your spells if you wanted to," Ren said, now understanding Gunther having a thing for fire.

Gunther sighed as he closed the Journal, feeling very good knowing he was not completely useless. Letting his Status Journal fade away he smiled as he looked at the three heroes "Looks like I'm not so screwed after all!" The other heroes also smiled, glad to know that the Demi-Human was going to be okay for the most part. "Seems like it, now, it's best we get some sleep. Tomorrow we get our companions to form our parties with so we need to be well rested." Everyone agreed with the Spear hero on that as they all got ready to sleep.

Gunther was about to go to his room before walking outside onto the balcony while looking up at the stars "Hey, will you guys, promise to help me out?" The other heroes looked over at him "Why do you ask?" Ren said as they all waited for Gunther to reply "Well...I never really have had any friends, real friends, and so I have been mostly on my own ever since my parents...left me five years ago. So, can you make sure I won't be alone?"

The three heroes looked at each other and then back at Gunther who's eyes were seemly pleading with them to say yes. After a moment Ren nodded "Sure, well be your friends." The Bow hero also nodded "Yeah, just because we can't form a party does not mean we can help each other out." Gunther looked at the Spear hero last with an innocent childlike look on his face. "I, okay kid, just know that we will have our own parties to deal with alright."

With a smile that seemed to shine with happiness, the young goat ran over and hugged Motoyasu. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much!" The spear hero just stood there with his arms spread out wide as he looked at his fellow heroes for help. The two heroes looked at each before shrugging and laughing softly themselves making Motoyasu embarrassed. "Okay, okay, enough with the hugs." He said to Gunther lightly pushing him off.

The shield hero grinned while looking down "Sorry." he said to the Spear hero who looked a little miffed, but soon he to start smiling "Come on kid, let's get to bed. We have a long month ahead of us." Everyone went off to bed, leaving Gunther to stare back at the starlit sky with some warm filling on the inside. That feeling was hope, hope that maybe, just maybe, things will turn out okay for him from now on.


	4. Chapter 4

When morning came and the first rays of sunlight had woken Gunther up he was feeling greatly rejuvenated, must be due to how comfy the bed was. Getting out of bed he saw that surprisingly he was the first one to wake up. Well, the Demi-Human did promise that he would make an effort to wake up at a more reasonable time so it made sense. The Sheild Hero frowned at that, his master is probably freaking out and ripping the town guard a new one about his sudden disappearance. Gunther, however, hoped that his master just gave up and forget about him, looking down he saw that his slave ring was still on his wrist, reminding him of his status as a slave.

Taking the ring off fairly easily, he figured out how to take it off when it started to bother him and held it in his hand before holding it up to his shield. The slavering disappeared making he stand there with a confused expression before willing his status Journal and turned its pages to Items. Right there was his current clothing and his slavering, with his clothes being listed as being equipped and his slavering as being stored.

Well, that's quite useful, soon Gunther wondered how much he can store in his inventory before hearing the other heroes finally wake up. Letting his Journal fade away he got up and ran over to greet them "Looks like your all awake!" he said cheerfully. With a groan, Motoyasu sat upright in his bed "Why you awake first, and so early too." Gunther just grinned "I'm a farm hand remember, I'm used to early mornings!'

The Spear hero just sighed as he got out of bed and put on his jacket "Seeing as you have so much energy I take it you had a good nights sleep?" The Demi-Human nodded "Yeah, sure did, took a look at my status Journal while waiting for you guys to wake up." With a smile, The Spear hero picked up his weapon "Well its always good to check your stats whenever you can, who knows you might find something you missed."

After that sort tip of advice, the rest of the heroes woke and they all made their way back to the throne room with Gunther walking just behind the other heroes. By the time they made it to the door, the guards had seemed ready for them and opened the doors allowing them to enter and stand ready to hear the king. "We had gathered the greatest warriors in the land," Stated Aultcray as Gunther saw the assortment of adventurers in front of them. "These brave souls will fight the waves alongside you." Walking up in line with his fellow heroes Gunther wondered how they were going to sort out the parties.

As he looked at the adventurers he noticed one with red hair and green eyes who was quite striking in appearance. Not only that but he got the feeling he had seen her before, he just wasn't sure from where. She seemed to have noticed him staring and smiled at him making Gunther's instincts told him that she was bad news. Averting his eyes away from the red haired girl while trying to act casual.

"Our future champions, the time has come to begin your Journey!" Once the King had finished speaking the adventurers stepped forward towards them, Gunther now understanding that it was them who were going to chose who they will group up with. As he stood there quietly he saw them one by one walk past him and join the other three heroes, leaving him companionless.

In all honesty, Gunther did not know why he was even surprised by this, he was a Demi-Human after all and the Shield hero at that. Counting how many members his fellow heroes had he saw 3 with Itsuki, a staggering 5 with Ren and 4 four with Motoyasu. Look from side to side Gunther sighed depressingly making the other heroes look him and then back at their teammates.

Gunther felt a poke on his shoulder and he saw Motoyasu point over at the king. Nodding softly he raised his hand shakily"Y-Your Majesty, it seems that I have no one to company me on my journey." The king seemed to raise an eyebrow at that, genuinely surprised that Gunther was being so respectful. "As much as I'm loathed to admit it but even I was not expecting this," The Demi-Human felt the King was lying about that but did voice his concern over that. The King's adviser just shook his head and scoffed "No volunteers, unsurprising given he's a Demi-Human."

Okay, Gunther actually took offense to that, the adviser wasn't even trying to hide the fact he disliked him. Soon a man moved over to the Kings side and whispered into his ear. With a groan, the king addressed the room whole room "I have been made aware of an unsettling rumor." This the four heroes attention with Motoyasu speaking up "Is there a problem sir?"

"Not exactly, it seems that word has gotten out that the Shield hero is, in fact, a Demi-Human, with some more 'exaggerated' one's claiming that he is a demon" Gunther made an actual goat noise of despair once hearing that, it hasn't been a day yet and already the people were distrustful of him. "Given how our people view the Shield hero the fact that he is a Demi-Human only seems to make the townsfolk believe that he's...unqualified for the position."

Unqualified, Gunther new something like this was bound to happen eventually but not this quickly, he should stop underestimating how much fate hated him by now. "Not only this but there is some suspicion that you simply a farm hand, although I can't imagine where they got that idea from." All four heroes just seemed to stop moving at that with Gunther in complete disbelief, how the hell did they know that?

The Spear hero leaned over to whisper into his ear "I think someone was eavesdropping on us last night." Gunther simply turned his eyes over to look at Motoyasu "Noo, really? I would not have guessed." The Shield whispered sarcastically with a frown.

He knows that he's a Demi-Human, heck he can understand how they don't want to join him given he's the shield hero, but to say he is unqualified is just insulting given how he was sure the other three probably have less experience about this world than him. Granted they know how to use their status magic better than him, and have more combat potential than he ever could, and are older than him...Okay, the Demi-Human now sees why he can be considered unqualified and he hated it.

"Um, my lord, may I talk with my fellow heroes for a moment?" The King nodded and Gunther turned over to the Sword hero "Ren, you have 5 members, think some of them can join me?" Ren looked at him with that same composed look on his face "I'm a loner so yeah I don't need them, whoever can't pull their weight gets left in the dust." The five adventurers simply stepped closer to Ren showing he was getting no help from them.

Gunther sighed as he turned to the Spear hero for help "Motoyasu, this is all kinda unfair to me don't you think?" The Spear hero just scratched the back of his head "Y-Yeah, I'm surprised my party is all girls too." Gunther just stared at him in disbelief and confusion "Why is that the most important thing on your mind right now?" The Spear hero simply rolled his eyes "Oh you're just jealous."

"What do you mean by Jealous, also, seriously what's with you and girls anyway?" Motoyasu looked shocked and stared at Gunther like he was some kind of mystery he had to solve. "What do..oh right your to young to understand." Gunther facepalmed hard and groaned, they were getting nowhere close to finding a solution to his lack of party members.

"While it might be fairer if we split up in pairs of 3, it might not be wise to force them to do something they don't want to and ruin morale, sorry Gunther." Itsuki said sympathetically with the rest of his party voicing their agreement. The Demi-Human for his part just makes an agitated goat noise, his mood clearly not at all happy given the events unfolding before him.

"Agh! Okay look, I'm a shielder and I work best with someone else backing me up, how am I supposed to do my duty as the shield hero if I can even get stronger?!" Everyone looked at one another with uncertainty being clear in the air as Gunther voiced his concern. Soon someone from Motoyasu raised their hand. "Excuse me, Sir hero?" Both Gunther and Motoyasu looked over to see who was speaking. Walking forward from being two of Motoyasu's companion was that same red haired girl that gave him that odd feeling from before.

She places a hand on her chest and gave an oddly welcoming warm smile that Gunther wasn't sure how to feel about "Would you kindly allow me to switch parties join the Shield hero?" Even her voice sounded kind, yet somehow he still felt slightly uneasy around her. Motoyasu looked surprised "Um, are you sure?" The Spear hero asked the red haired girl. The women simply smiled and warmly "I am."

By this point, Gunther was conflicted, on one hand he was simply happy that someone, a human at that, was willing to be on his team. But on other, something about her just didn't sit right with him at all. Gunther wasn't sure what her reason for joining up with him was but as of now, he couldn't for the life of him tell what she was thinking.

The king hummed to himself, Gunther noticing that all the priests were holding out their necklaces and making silent prayers. "Is their anyone else willing to join the Shield hero on his quest?" The sheer Silence of the room of deafening and it was starting to make everyone feel slightly uncomfortable. The King for the most part just coughed into his hand to break the uneasy silence "Um, well then so be it, well just have to take other measures then Shield hero, you will have to recruit for your party yourself"

Gunther let out a sigh of relief, seems things are going as good as they can be he supposed. The red haired Adventurer walked over and stood next to him, the Demi-Human still unsure how to feel about her. "Every month we shall provide each hero with the funds they require, while I would given the shield heroes party more to work with given how few members he has. I none the less will not do so for the sake of fairness." Gunther smiled, while more money would be welcome, he knew full well it was too much for a Demi-Human like him to ask for.

Motioning with his hand the king ordered four servants to come forth with bags full of silver "Here are your initial war chests, accept them with our thanks." Gunther could tell he was saying that to the other heroes, but he none the less was thankful that they were being, well he was hesitant to say fair so he'll just go with _'merciful_'. "All of you all each have 675 slivers to start with, procure all necessary equipment and set forth!"

"Yes Sir/My Lord!" The three heroes looked at Gunther when he said that while the goat Demi-Human gave a sheepish smile. Afterward, they all ended up in the courtyard, Gunther tossing the bag of silver into the air and feeling its weight. The Demi-Human had never had so much money in his hand all his life, the knowledge of this made the bag feel heavier then it was.

Gunther sighed as he caught the bag in his hand easily having gotten used to carrying heavy things in the past. "Later Gunther!" The Demi-Human heard Motoyasu shout out to him making the Shield hero and his companion turn around. "Take good care alright kid you hear me." Itsuki smiled hearing his fellow hero concern for the young Demi-Human "They said we can't help each other directly, but I do hope you'll meet up with us tomorrow morning and I wish you the best of luck with find people to join you."

Ren still had his calm and collected expression but Gunther thought he saw the ghost of a smile on the sword heroes face "Until next time, so long." With a smile, Gunther waved his friends goodbye, already excited to speak with them tomorrow. The red haired girl spoke up gaining his attention "I beg your pardon Shield hero, let me introduce myself, my name is Myne Suphia, it nice to be your acquaintance." Gunther nodded "Gunther, just Gunther." Myne simply raised an eyebrow with that same welcoming smile on her face "Really, just Gunther, well I haven't heard of many Demi-Humans with a last name, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Gunther rubbed the back of his neck nervously "That is...true." Myne gave a laugh at that making the Demi-Human feel embarrassed. Still, so far Myne seemed to be quite friendly and open, and that was what bothered him. She joined him when no one else did and he was starting to think she had an ulterior motive, Gunther just did not know if that motive had any bad intentions behind it.

For now, he'll have to make do with working together with her "Well I think we should get going, can't afford to lose any daylight Myne." Myne held her hands together looking quite enthusiastic "Right!" The two made their way over to the village, Myne showing him around as he was unfamiliar with the town. Gunther could feel all the stares some people gave him as they walk, some of shock and others of slight fear as they made a prayer with their hands.

But despite that Gunther couldn't help be mesmerized by all of the goods that were being sold all around them on the busy streets. He had always heard that the capital was a sight to behold but it was something else to see it first hand. Soon Myne turned around and asked, "So Sir Hero, what do you think we do next?" The Demi-Human thought for a moment before getting an idea "Well we're going to need some gear so, do you know where to find a blacksmith?"

Myne beamed at that "Of course! I know a weapons shop that I trust will give you a good deal despite you being a Demi-Human, just follow me." Gunther was pleasantly surprised by that "That...That sounds great!" With a bright smiled Myne asked him to follow as she ran off. Seeing her act so kind to him made Gunther reconsider his suspicions, maybe he was just being unnecessarily paranoid. With this in mind, Gunther made sure to keep up with Myne and in no time at all they found themselves at the blacksmith's shop.

With wide childlike glee Gunther gawked at all the finely crafted armor and weapons that were sitting on armor stands or weapon racks. "This has my highest recommendation." Myne told him as the Demi-Human looked around the shop in awe "Wow, I have seen a blacksmith make a knife back home but I doubt they could forge blades this good."

"Well I certainly a very good smith if I say so myself." the two looked over and saw the Blacksmith standing there at his desk. The Blacksmith looked at Gunther and seemed to have a sudden realization after seeing the shield the Demi-Human carried "Okay, I can see why people are calling you a demon Shield hero." Gunther sounded agitated by this "Does word of mouth really move that fast in this place?" The Blacksmith nodded "Yeah, not much goes unnoticed around here. Anyway, welcome to my shop, I assure you you've made the right choice coming here."

Gunther rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly "Actually Myne here told me about this place." The Blacksmith looked at Myne and squinted "Hey, I think I have seen you before." Myne simply laughed while walking behind Gunther and placing a hand on his shoulder. "I have been here before, your shop if very renowned after all."

The Blacksmith rubbed the back of his neck "Ah, that very sweet of you to say, anyhow what can I do to get you out of those farmers rags." Gunther blinked before looking down at his clothes and groaned "It's really obvious that I worked on a farm isn't it?" The Blacksmith just gave him a look that told him that it really was.

Gunther made a frustrated goat noise, making the Blacksmith stare at him strangely while Myne giggled to herself. The Demi-Human was red in the face, really thought he should find out who's spreading the word out about him later. "U-Um, anyway I'm Gunther, I was summoned as the Shield hero...Its a pleasure to meet you!" The Blacksmith noticed how timid the kid was being with him looked at the ground and could tell that he did not have much faith in himself.

"Hey look, if you become a regular I won't give two hoots about what you fight with, alright kid?" Gunther looked up from the floor with confused eyes before smiling warmly "Y-Yeah." The Blacksmith smiled seeing the Demi-Human looking much more confident "Good to meet you then." Gunther smiled, happy to be treated well by someone and felt Myne pat his back while holding her hands on both his shoulders. "Now that that's out of the way can you provide Sir hero with some equipment?" Myne asked as the Blacksmith letting go of Gunther's shoulders much to his own relief.

"Hmm, I think I got some weapons you can choose from." The Blacksmith said who started to walk to the back but was interrupted by Gunther "Actually I don't think I might be able to use a weapon other than this shield." The Blacksmith and Myne looked at him in confusion "What do mean by that Sir hero?" Myne asked Gunther.

"Well, I read in a book that the four heroes could only wield their own weapons. Something about it conflicting with their intended power." As Gunther explained the blacksmith looked skeptical of him and picked up a short sword from one of the weapon racks. "Here, try and hold this." Gunther looks at the sword and then back at the smith before reaching out to grip the hilt. As soon as he did the sword suddenly sparked with electricity screaming everyone and making Gunther drop the blade.

Gunther rubbed his hand as Myne voiced her surprise "Huh, I guess you were right about not being able to hold anything other then you shield as a weapon." As the Demi-Human nodded silently the Blacksmith seemed to be in deep thought "I wonder how that works..." Walking over to Gunther and held up the Demi-Humans shield to inspect it with a magnifying glass.

"Hmm, while this looks like just an ordinary small shield I can sense a great amount of power coming from this gem in it, unfortunately, my appraisal magic does not let me see much more than that. Can you even take this thing off?" Gunther just shook his head "No, at least not yet. I can move it from arm to arm but other then that It's stuck where it is." With a sigh, the Blacksmith put away his magnifying glass.

"Oh well, at least you showed me something interesting. By the way, I think it would be fair to say you need some armor." Gunther looked down again at his current attire in agreement. Later they found some chain mail armor for him to wear to which Gunther found it hard to get his head through the top of the armor due to his horns getting in the way. However, after some effort, he finally got it on straight.

Both Myne and the Blacksmith looked at him and smiled "Well then, you're now looking the part of a hero." Gunther moved his arms around and saw that the armor did not restrict his movement that much "Y-Yeah, I guess I am.." Myne then chimed in "So how much do you want for it?"

"Heroes discount, 120 silver." Myne then asked again "What about the buyback price?" The Blacksmith had a thoughtful expression as he calculated the cost in his head "Well If it's in good condition when you bring it back I'd say about 100 silver." Gunther walked over to Myne with a raised eyebrow "Buyback pice?" He asked wondering what Myne was on about.

"Once you grow strong enough you won't really need it anymore, so it would be a good idea to know how much you can sell it so you won't get ripped off." Gunther thought about that and it had some merit "Yeah, I can see how that can be useful to know."

Myne then suddenly grabbed him from behind making him yelp in surprise. "Then we'll take it." The Blacksmith seemed to look amused by this "Sure thing, I'll even throw in some innerwear to show my thanks." Once they had paid the Blacksmith and were the clothes the Myne looked at Gunther excitedly "So, where to next, off to do battle?" Gunther scratched his chin before nodding "That seems like the best thing to do next."

The Demi-Human wondered how fighting with a shield could work, and while he could fall back on his fire magic he would rather get used to the shield then risk people making more claims of him being a demon.

Turns out fighting was going to a pain in the ass for Gunther as he found out. Myne brought him over to where they could fight some fodder monsters and he could see them coming to due to an aura like outline covering them that started out green and ended with red. The monster was called balloons, they were the weakest of the weak but by the heavens above it took him a long time to just kill one of them.

Gunther also learned that due to how high his defense was he could not feel the pain of them bitting him. While this made it easier to fight it still did not change the fact that it took him forever to defeat a single balloon. His already low confidence was lowered even more when he saw Ren cutting down the balloons at a much faster pace than he ever could.

Myne herself stepped in to help him with her own sword, and soon enough they started experimenting with the balloon fragments on his shield which seemed to store and absorbed the fragments. It was then he saw that if fed enough fodder fragments to it he'll unlock a new shield "Wow, your shield's power is really something to behold." Myne told him as Gunther fed the shield more Balloon fragments.

"Yeah, looks like im going to have to kill a lot more of those things to get this shield." Gunther commented as he sighed, bone tired from farming monsters. "I see." Myne said intrigued. "So, any idea how much those fragments would go for?" Gunther asked Myne as she thought about it "At most, they would only go for one copper each." The Demi-Human agreed with Myne on that, given how easy Ren dispatched the orange balloons.

"Seems we should call it a day and return to the weapons shop, if we can buy some new gear for me then we are sure to get much further tomorrow." Gunther smiled and was about to get up to fallow her, but then thought about something. "You go on ahead, I'll stick around to farm some more monsters." Myne looked surprised by that "Really, are you sure? You look quite tired after all." The Demi-Human just shrugged it off "I'm used to tiring my self out."

Myne seemed disappointed but smiled anyway "Alright Sir hero, I'll meet you back at the Castle then!" With that Myne left Gunther and as soon as she was gone Gunther groaned out as he fell backward onto the grass. "Finally, I can be by myself..." The Demi-Human said to himself as he looked up at the afternoon sky. Gunther was getting really uncomfortable with Myne's friendliness and being alone while watching the clouds go by really really calmed him down.

Taking out his status Journal he looked at his level and saw he was nearly halfway to level 2 which did not satisfy him. Sadly Gunther could only do one damage while attacking with his shield, and so it took him at most five minutes to kill a balloon. Thinking on a way to farm monsters faster he turned the page over to skills and spells, finding that the fireball spell was still there.

As he was debating on whether or not to use the spell he felt something latch onto his leg and look down to see a balloon trying to gnaw at him. Reaching down and plucking the weak monster from his leg he looked at it carefully as it angrily tried to bite his face. Raising up his hand he thought about casting fireball and a ball of flame appeared floating in his hand.

The balloon stopped trying to bite him and looked at the flames with some sort of primitive curiosity before Gunther threw it into the air and fling his spell at the balloon. The next Gunther knows is that he's watching a flaming balloon rolling around in the grass panicking. Luckily for Gunther, it seems the flames did not spread from the target and so there was no collateral damage he would have to worry about. Soon the flames died down after a minute or two and the balloon was weakened enough that it only took a few punches to pop it.

_"Well you look at that, seems I have a way of leveling faster."_ Gunther thought to himself as he checked his Journal only to frown. Turns out casting magic took a lot of his mana to do and so he could only cast it twice given how much mp he had currently. Hearing more balloons move towards him Gunther simply sighed as he got ready to cast another fireball. This was going to take the rest of the afternoon.


	5. Chapter 5

Gunther threw another punch at a weakened balloon making it explode as soon as it was hit. Breathing heavily the Demi-Human went to work gathering all of the balloon scraps before wiping his brow and smiled at a job well done. Pulling out his Journal he was pleasantly surprised that he was almost at level 2, just needed to work a little more tomorrow and he will advance. Gunther had been using fire magic in conjunction with his shield and found this the best way for him to fight effectively.

Gunther's father taught him how to use his magic, while he never got to the chance to learn that much from the fire mage the Demi-Human none the less had been able to figure out some small things about the art of spell casting on his own. At the thought of his father, Gunther grew depressed, it had been 5 years since he had last seen his parents that he had accepted the fact he may never see them again. Still, he was sure that they would proud of him owning up to being the Shield hero, they would be worried sick for his well being but that's because they loved him and did not wish for Gunther to get hurt.

Reaching up to his check he saw that he was tearing up, wiping away the tears from his eyes he sadly smiled as he looked up at the sky. It had just turned to night time and it was probably best to get back to the castle. Holding up his shield he pulled out his slavering and stared at it looking at the Number engraved on it before putting it away, that he was going to put that life behind him.

Walking back to across the green hills under the starlit sky made him smile, it had been a while since he had gotten the chance to be alone to enjoy the stars. Soon he had reached the castle and saw Myne seemly talking to herself "Myne, I'm back." Myne turned around and smiled at Gunther, the Demi-Human noticing that it seemed less warm then it used to look.

"Ah Sir hero, you certainly took your time." She said placing her hands on her chest making him notice she had gotten herself new gear "Yeah, sorry about that, just needed some time to my self you know." Gunther told her sheepishly. Myne smiled, and again Gunther noticed that something was off with her as he was getting a feeling she was planning something oddly sinister, why was he noticing this only now?

"Well, im glad your alright, oh let me give you something." Gunther suddenly felt very nervous as Myne reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle. "Heres some red win-" "No..." Myne blinked owlishly and looked at Gunther who had a worried expression "I didn't even finish talking yet, Anyway this is red wine, it was pretty pricey I thought we could-" "The Answer is still no..." Gunther said interrupting her again.

Myne now looked slightly mad at the Demi-Human "Why not?" Gunther simply stood there with a raised eyebrow "I'm only 14 and I have never had alcohol before, besides my father said-" Myne Suddenly popped up in front of him with a smiled that now looked malicious. "Oh don't worry about it, its just one cup, besides...It will be _fun~_" Gunther was woefully scared of her now, the tone of voice she was using was unnerving and he found himself backed against a wall.

"I-I don't think this is a good idea." Gunther said as Myne got uncomfortably close, shivering as she giggled, pinning him with one hand to the wall. "Oh you dumb _little goat_, its just one cup. Think of this as solidifying us being teammates _Gunther~_" Looking around he found himself pressured by her words, maybe it won't be so bad it if he just one drink... Gunther stared at Myne as she smiled at him, those light green eyes of her's waiting for an answer.

"O-Okay, just let go of me!" Myne laughed at this making Gunther look frightened as she backed off "Of course, now," She said gleefully pulling off the cap of the Bottle and taking out a glass before pouring the wine into it. The Demi-Human stood there, wondering if he should just back out while he still can and go to his room to sleep. But before he could even think of running Myne held the cup up to his face. "Here, _take it~_"

Gunther found himself staring at the cup before shakily taking it from Myne's hand, the red haired girl smiling devilishly as he did. Looking away from Myne he stared down at the red water in his hand with uncertainty, seeing his worried expression reflected back at him. Taking a deep breath he raised the cup to his mouths, Myne's smile growing ever more across her face. As he drank the wine Gunther cringed as it tasted awful, but he none the less keeps on drinking.

Emptying the glass he started cough to get the bad taste that was in his mouth out, dropping the cup in the process. "Sir hero, is something wrong?~" Myne asked Gunther in an almost mocking voice. "I-I, agh, my head hurts," The Demi-Human said as he started to feel unbalanced all of a sudden. Something was wrong with his head, he just can't seem to think straight.

Myne grinned "Oh that must be the '_alcohol_' kicking in, let me take you to my room so you can-" "No! Ow!" he shouted out to her gripping his head in pain, not at all trusting of her as his vision started to become hazy. Gunther then started to run off with Myne calling out to him "Where are you going _Shield hero?~_"

Gunther did not hear her, his head just felt like it was slowing down and it became painful to even think. As he ran the walls around him seemed to close in as he lost track of time. Soon Gunther found his room and closed the door while running out to the window before vomiting, breathing heavily he wiped his sweating brow with his sleeve and walked over to his bed, was everything always this bright?

Gunther took off his chain mail and threw it to the floor, it was suddenly so hot and by the time he made it to his bed, the Demi-Human simply fell onto to the bed the sheets, his body giving out from a combination of exhaustion and the alcohol. Weakly rolling over he breathed in and out as his eyes slowly closed as he finally blacked out.

He briefly regained consciousness, his vision blurred and hearing distorted as he saw a figure fold something up in there hands before laughing quietly to themselves _"Men are so gullible."_ The figure said as it left and Gunther fell unconsciousness once more.

_Gunther found himself standing on the edge of a mountainside near the town that he used to live in. Looking down around the Demi-Human quickly surmount that he was dreaming and turned when he heard a bunch of kids laughing happily. There he saw some Demi-Humans playing with a ball and then a young version of himself sitting down staring longingly at the ball wanting to join in and play._

_Gunther remembered this, the other kids never wanted to play with him, saying he might burn something by accident due to how twitchy he was with his magic. His father tried to help him control his magic better but Gunther would always find a way to somehow set something on fire. He frowned staring at his younger self, he thought things would never get better, and he was sadly right for the most part. The younger Gunther looked over at him much to his surprise, as the two Demi-Humans blinked at each other the younger Gunther ran over to him with childish concern._

_"Are you okay?" Gunther simply shook his head letting it hang down as the Demi-Hunan stared at the ground. "No, I'm such an idiot for trusting Myne..." The younger goat pouted "You knew she was bad, you could feel it! So why drink the wine?!" Gunther groaned "I don't know, she pushed me into a corner and I felt so scared of what she was doing so I panicked...I'm such a pushover..." As the Gunther sat down on the ground at barred his head in his knees his younger self looked sad "Don't be so mean to yourself, I mean, things can get better...right?" Gunther could hear the uncertainty in the younger Demi-Human's voice and sighed "When has anything gone better for me, whenever something seems like my life is turning around I end up starting back at where I started."_

_Punching the ground Gunther shouted, "How am I supposed to think my life will get better when everyone is out to prove me wrong and throw me to the wolves!" Standing up in anger he kept on shouting " Time and time again I try and be nice but in the end, humans simply take advantage of me, I'm Sick and Tired of It!" Throwing back his hand in frustration Gunther unintentionally casted a fireball into a tree setting it alight._

_Pausing in shock he covered his mouth as he then heard his younger self start sobbing in fear, shaking in place while watching the trees burn. Making a goat noise of despair Gunther kicked the ground and crossed his arms, he always found to a way to ruin things for himself. Feeling a tugging on his left leg Gunther looked down to see his younger self wiping his eyes "Can you, please promise not to be a bad guy..."_

_Gunther stopped and was about to ask why before looking at the burning tree. He knew what his younger self meant by 'don't be a bad guy'. Gunther had been letting his fear and angrier the better of him and it was starting to affect his actions negatively. Staring at his hand Gunther had always thought about learning how to use his magic so he can get rid of all his problems. But that was not who was, Gunther was a kind person and is always willing to help when he saw it was the right thing to do._

_So what if people try and use Gunther's kindness against him, he won't so easily change his outlook on life, and he currently won't let someone make him into a monster. It was childish, yes, but what was he but a child after all. Gunther is still growing up, but he will not become the thing everyone calls him._

_Looking back to his younger self he knelt down to their height "Don't worry, I won't end up a complete mess unless something really bad happens alright." The young Gunther pouted "You didn't promise yet." Gunther chuckled "I Promise not to be a bad guy." His younger self smiled brightly at that "Yey! Oh, I think its time for you to wake up, hope I see you later!"_

_Gunther patted his younger self on the head making them laugh, even if he did not have any friends until now he at least had himself to count on to keep him company. Standing up Gunther saw a bright light behind him and looked back at his younger self who simply waved him goodbye with the Shield hero waving back as he walk into the light and out of dreamland._

Opening his eyes he regretted it as the sunlight shines right in his face. Blinking to get the blurriness out of his vision he gripped his head in pain, turns out Gunther does not handle alcohol well. Yawning he rolls out of bed and onto the floor before getting up. As Gunther stretched his back he noticed that his chain mail is gone when he looked where he threw it. With wide eyes, he looked around and saw that his room had been ransacked of everything he had gotten yesterday, with only the clothes he had been summoned that he was still wearing. Oh, and his shield was still on too, that thing was not going anywhere it seems.

Gunther's mouth had dropped open from this and he stood there trying to process what had happened. After the Demi-Human concluded that he had been robbed while he was passed out from the wine Myne gave him Gunther simply wondered how they got into the castle in the first place.

Unsure what to do Gunther heard a loud banging sound no his door room and turned around just in time to see the castle guard break it down with their spears pointed at him. "W-What the!?" The Demi-Human was silenced by a spear pointed at his neck as the guards surrounded him from all sides. "You are to be brought to the king to testify for your crimes Shield hero!" Gunther was shocked and confused, what the heck did he even do? Not wanting to cause any more trouble he obliged.

Escorted by the guards he held his hands in the air, what crime did they believe he committed, Gunther wanted to ask but kept his mouth shut tightly as he knew they would shout at him to stay quiet if the hateful glares they were giving his way were any indication. Soon he was at the doors of the throne room and Gunther felt a pit in his stomach as he tried to keep calm as him freaking out would only make things worse. He felt the poke of a spear at his back as the doors opened he felt a heavy pit form in his stomach

When Gunther stood before the king and everyone else he could feel their glares of hate and disgust, the Demi-Human still unable to speak as he did not even know what he was being accused of in the first place. Seeing the looks of contempt on everyone's faces simply made Gunther worry, even more, the three heroes who he had seen arguing with the king briefly as the door opened seemed almost in complete disbelief, with Motoyasu himself looking quite angered and...was he wearing Gunther's chainmail.

The shield hero had no time to even think about it before he was shoved to his knees, spears pointed at his neck to prevent him from trying to fight back, not that he would anyway.

When Gunther stood before the king and everyone else he could feel their glares of hate and disgust, the Demi-Human still unable to speak as he did not even know what he was being accused of in the first place. Seeing the looks of contempt on everyone's faces simply made Gunther worry, even more, the three heroes who he had seen arguing with the king briefly as the door opened seemed almost in complete disbelief, with Motoyasu himself looking quite angered and...was he wearing Gunther's chainmail.

The shield hero had no time to even think about it before he was shoved to his knees, spears pointed at his neck to prevent him from trying to fight back, not that he would anyway. The King, face rife with restrained anger spoke "Gunther..." When the Demi-Human heard his name spoken out by the King in such a way he knew that whatever they thought he did was serious which only added to his growing dread.

"You have been accused of attempted assault by Miss Suphia," Gunther's eyes widened in disbelief at the accusation, he did no such thing, but he did not wish to interrupt the King or else risk invoking his wrath. "Not only this, but this not normal assault from what she told us, but that of a more, sinister nature..." Gunther had just noticed Myne was also there and, she was crying to herself making wonder just had they were accusing him of doing. "You, Gunther, are accused of sexual assault, regardless of whether it attempted or not, such a crime is unforgivable." The Kings Advisers said making Gunther's heart stop.

Gunther stood in shock and horror as the Kings raised from his throne, the Demi-Human already knowing the punishment for the such a sin was death "Under normal circumstances, you would have already been executed on the spot!" Wordlessly Gunther shook in place on the verge of breaking down, only keeping himself tougher by the notion that if he did everyone would simply take it as he trying to earn their pity.

Looking up Gunther wondered why this was happening, why Myne would accuse him, why was is happing to him! "But since you are one of the few who can stem the tide of the waves we can not afford to kill you, that and I have been informed that you were intoxicated during the attempt. If I had my way your head would already be rolling across the floor Demi-Human"

It was at that moment that he saw out of the corner of his eye Myne lower her hands from her face, not a tear to be seen as a malicious smile briefly appeared before she went back to covering her face. Time seemed to stop as Gunther pieced it all tougher, Myne lied about being raped, but why? Deep down he already knew, it was because he was a Demi-Human who just so happened to be the Shield hero, they really hated him this much?

The King then pointed at him "What do have to say for yourself hero!" Gunther did not know what he could say, he can't just say he didn't do it they would throw that away without a second thought. The young Demi-Human thought hard on what he could say, before sighing as he knew there was only one thing he can say. "I don't remember..." The room was silent for a few moments before Motoyasu steps forward "What do you mean you don't remember!?" Gunther felt anger rises as he heard that "I Mean I Don't Remember Anything From Last Night!" The Guards pushed their spears closer to his throat but he paid them no mind as he continued to scream "After drinking the wine Myne gave me, I felt a headache and blacked out before waking up in my bed, I don't remember a single thing that happened alright So what MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?"

By this point Gunther had tears running his face, no longer able to keep his emotions under control as he breathes heavily while lowing his head. "What more do you want from me..." As Gunther brokedown and did his best to hide it the other Motoynasu stared at him while Itsuki sighed "I see now, you were completely under the mercy of the effects of alcohol, that does not make what you did right in any way but I can see that it was a horrible mistake that you had made." Ren also nodded "You can not deny that you insulted Myne, but you also can not prove that you did not?"

Gunther simple kept looking a the ground in shame as he forced himself to say his next words "Y-Yes, that is, c-correct..." He felt like he was lying straight through his teeth, while yes last night was hazy he still knows for a fact he did not try to rape Myne. But they would not believe him if he told them that now would they? Who would believe the words of a Demi-Human over that of a human when all the evidence they had pointed that he was guilty.

"It was a mistake to summon all the heroes at once." Gunther heard someone say as he slowly felt his world crash around him for the second time in his life since that day 5 years ago. "Your right, we should not have summoned the shield hero at all!" As Gunther heard them all talk about him he slowly started to shut down, how can they all be so cruel, how can Myne even do this to him, why are they even letting him live at this point.

"Who could have guessed that the Shield hero would be such scum, then again, what would you expect from a filthy Demi-Human." When those words reached his ears the world seemed to shatter around him as he felt something creak in his soul. Was this why they were doing this, because of the shield, he knew that the church believed the Shield hero to be a Demon but to put that same label onto him due to him being a Demi-Human as well was just unfair. Did they really feel so much hate for his kind and the shield that they would ruin his life!

Old words from his father came to mind as the shared world around him slowly came back to tougher _"Never trust those with power, especially humans my son, for they will always wish to take all you have for their own selfish gain."_

No more did he understand his father's words more than now, these people are evil, there nothing else he can describe them, none of them believe in him, he did not even believe that the people who lived in this kingdom would help him after today. Why should he even help them after all of this, Gunther knew why.

If he did not help fight off the waves, the world would be destroyed, and while the kingdom would go with it and all of the horrible people who have wrong him. So will those who are innocent and are simply trying to live their lives in pace will as well. "Fine," Gunther said as the world went back to normal for him "I don't even care anymore about this, what are you going to do with me..?" The King sighed as he sat back with a hand to his head "As much I wish to kick you out of my Kingdom, you still have a duty to complete. Until you help defeat all the oncoming waves, you will not be allowed freedom." Everyone looked back at the king with shock.

"Wait so you saying we have to fight alongside a criminal like him, a Demi-Human no less?" A guard said as Gunther finally had enough of all this as he snapped "Who needs you all anyway!" Everyone stared at him as he shook in rage. "I'll figure out how to fight the waves on my own!" As he shouted this he suddenly called upon his strength and pushed back the guards who had their spear pointe at him.

"Don't move Demi-Human scum!" That simply made him even more enraged as they all tried to restrain him. "Get OFF!" He shouted at them before throwing a fireball at his feet, the ball of flame exploding brightly as they all backed off away from him in fear as the fire died down show Gunther completely unscathed. With unrestrained fury burning in his eyes he pointed to the king "So what are going to do now!? Lock me away like some rabid Dog!" The Demi-Human shouted out with uncharacteristic anger, seems like he was close to his breaking point.

The King spoke quickly "There is no more time before the next wave hits so attempting to imprison you would be a waste of time. Scum or not you still hold power to help save my kingdom from ruin. However, news of your crime is already spreading among the populace. So don't ever expect to lead a decent life in my kingdom!" Gunther could hear the venom seeping through the king voice as he scowled, the expression contrasting with the rest of his face. Turning around he started to walk before turning around he glared at his fellow heroes "I hope you're all happy with yourselves..." Saying that Gunther went to walking away as he heard Motoyasu came running towards him.

"Gunther wait!" Motoyasu said as he grabbed hold of the demi-humans arm before finding himself pulled forward and head-butted by him. As Motoyasu railed back from this and gripped his head in pain Gunther just glared at the Spear hero with hate filled eyes. "I don't want to hear you, and neither do I have time, I'm the weak one remember!" He said with a soft laugh and uncertain smile, but it all seemed hollow to Motoayasu when compared to the bright hopeful smile that Gunther gave to him when they first meet two days ago.

As Myne ran over to see if the Spear hero was okay Gunther simply turned back to walk out of the castle, time blurred past him until he found himself outside the gate and hearing in close behind him with a loud clang. Standing there silently he looked back at the castle one last time before walking away with his head held down low and tears dripping down his face.

Before when Gunther walked through the town he tended ignored the odd stares he was given, but now he saw that everyone simply avoided him out right in fear. He hated the feeling, it implied that he did do something wrong when in reality he didn't. As he walked he heard some out call out to him "Hey shield bro." Gunther knew full well who's voice that was and before he knew it the Blacksmith was holding his shirt with a raised fist. "I Heard what you to that girl you were with, I should punch you in the face you danm Di..."

The Blacksmith stopped speaking when he saw Gunther's face and eyes, he saw the young Demi-Human was scared as he whimpered and his eyes showed clear signs of feeling betrayed. "Please, don't hurt me, I've already had enough pain today..." Hearing this from Gunther and checking his eyes the Blacksmith lowered him back to the ground, the Demi-Human still shaking in fear.

Gunther looked up "W-Why, aren't you?" The Blacksmith sighed "I changed my mind, I can't bring my self to punch a frightened kid." The Demi-Human looked back down at the ground as he breathed in and out quickly, still reeling from what had transpired earlier. The Blacksmith felt pity for the kid, no one should go through what Gunther was right now and wondered what to do "Hey Gunther, look at me" The Blacksmith asked as Gunther looked up at the tall man.

"Follow me, I have something to give you." Gunther was hesitant at first in trusting the man but saw that the Blacksmith meant no harm to him and so followed him into the ally way. There the Blacksmith pulled out a green cloak and some clothes "I..." Gunther had no words as the Blacksmith spoke "You won't get far in those farmers rags so put this on, think of it as a parting gift." Staring at the apparent gift he looked at the Blacksmith with surprise "Why, why are you helping me..." The goat Demi-Human asked in a quiet voice as it was sore from all the yell he had done back at the castle.

"Look, I'm not going to just stand by knowing I would be letting a kid die out there. With this at least you have a chance of surviving the first few days. So please, take it." Hearing the Blacksmith's kind words he took the gift and put it on, the feeling fresh cloths calming him. "I, Promise to pay you back, thank you..." Gunther told the Blacksmith before walking off to leave the town as the Blacksmith sighed as he thought about the Demi-Humans eyes. _"I know you will, just don't die on me, okay kid..."_

Once Gunther had left the walls of the town he found himself being attacked by Balloons, but he just couldn't bring himself to fight them as they clung to him. As he walked he grew more and angrier as his mind ran the events of the throne room over and over again. Eventually, he grabbing a balloon off him and threw it at another one before setting them both alight with his magic. Gunther did not remember how long he fought the balloons, just that once he was done he was sitting down at the base of a tree in the forest with a pile of balloon fragments at his feet.

It had started raining at some point so he took shelter under the tree as the water poured from the sky. A balloon tried to jump him but he simply threw a fireball at it before punching it to death. Doing so made his whole body glow and he opened his Journal to find that he was level 2. But Gunther found no pride in it, why should he given all that had happened. Pulling his legs closer to himself and curling up in a fetal position against the tree he covered himself in the green cloke for warmth.

Gunther then started to cry as the full realization of what happened finally hit him like a boulder. As he cried he felt something he had not felt since that day 5 years ago when he was taken away from his parents. Gunther was, once again, alone...

_Sleep, my Child._

_And please, be Good._

_Let, the Wind bring my song, to you._

_May, the Mountains, give you the strength, to move Forward._

_let, the Earth, hold you up, when all falls Down._

_Your Fire, shall burn to keep you Warm, when no one else will._

_So Sleep, my Child._

_Please, be, Good..._


	6. Chapter 6

_A young Gunther crouched down to look at a plant that smelled nice and was about to pick it up when he heard his father grunt. "Papa, what is it?" Gunther's Father simply rolled his eyes "You do know that plant has poison ivy growing next to it right son?" Blinking the Demi-Human looked closer and there was indeed poison ivy wrapped around the plant. Gunther pouted, he really wanted to know how the nice smelling plant tasted like._

_Groaning softly Gunther sat there annoyed before his Father tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around he gasped as his Father had found a plant that was not covered in poison ivy and the Demi-Human child took it. Bringing it up to his face to sniffed it to take in the delicious aroma before taking a bite out of it. The taste of the plant was kinda bitter which made Gunther almost spit it out before chewing it more and finding it not that bad._

_His father laughed "Bitter right," Gunther nodded before taking another bite out of the plant "Well that plant right your eating is an herb used in medicine. That's why most medicines and potions for that matter taste kinda bad, but you get used to it." Gunther Father told him as the child finished up eating the bitter plant. Swallowing the last bit Gunther stood up with a smile on his face "Can you teach me about herbs father?"_

_Gunther's Father cupped his chin "Well I don't know much about herbal medicines, that's more of your mother's expertise when she's not out hunting. Maybe you can ask her when she gets back." Smiling brightly Gunther jumped up and down "Yey!... Hey, Dad" Gunthers Father nodded for his son to speak. "Well, I remember you promising to teach me how to cast magic so, can we start right now."_

_His Father stopped smiling and frowned for moments before going to back to a happier expression "So long as you don't burn something by accident again like last time Gunther." The Demi-Human started making goat sound as he was stumbling on his words, the boys Father giving a hearty laugh at his son's antics. "Haha, Ah...Come then, let's see if your aim has improved." Gunther looked embarrassed but none the less followed his Father off to learn how to properly throw a ball of fire._

Gunther then woke up from his dream, a happy memory he had of his time with his family. He frowned when he remembered where he was and how he got there, the events of yesterday still fresh in his mind. It still angered him how quickly he was tossed out, but he knew that it was better than death.

Getting up from the floor he picked up the balloon bits and rolled them up into a small ball before hearing more of the little monsters roll over his way. Gunther beat them, took him some time to do but it had given him 25 balloon fragments for the Demi-Human to sell. Walking into town the same stares of fear and hate followed him like a shadow, Gunther never really feeling like it went away even when no one was around.

Finding a shop that would buy the monster fragments he overheard that the Merchant pay 1 copper for every two balloon pieces. Doing some quick math that means he could get about 12 coppers for what he had which was a good deal. Walking forward the man who the Merchant was talking to saw him and stared at Gunther in fear once seeing his horns and quickly made himself scarce. Sighing Gunther put on his best normal smile and walked up the Merchant who took one good look at him and coughed into his hand, when the man did this Gunther knew this was going to be annoying.

"I-I, Welcome sir how can I-" Gunther simply took out the ball of Balloon fragments and put it on the table "So, how much are you giving me for these?" Gunther asked kindly. The Merchant seemed uncertain as he counted to fragments "Orange Balloon's I see," The tone of voice the Merchant had was already getting on his nerves as he knew what that tone meant.

"About 25 five, how about a copper for all of them what do you say." Gunther's smile faded as he stared at the Merchants checky grin. "I overheard you giving the last man 1 for 2..." The Merchant seemed to act dumb as he looked away and rub his chin "Oh did I? I don't remember saying that, look I have a business to run and I don't need a rotten Demi-Human putting words in my mouth. "

A scowl formed on Gunther's face, so this guy was trying to rip him off then? Reaching out Gunther grabbed the Merchant by his shirt and pulled him over to look them in the eye "Look, I'm sick and tired of you humans thinking you can just walk all over me so I suggest that you hear what I say next really well" Holding up his free hand he summoned a ball of fire, The Merchant now frightened "You gave me the same deal you gave that man or I'll burn you stall to the ground."

Gunther's voice was much more menacing than it normally was, anger and frustration being heard in every word he spoke. The Merchant looked worried "Y-Your bluffing, you wouldn't actually go through with that threat would you?" Gunther simply brought the ball of flame to the each of sleeve lighting it on fire to which the Merchant started screaming in panic. For his part, Gunther simply glared at the man as the fire slowly spread before decasting the spell and patting down the flames. "Believe me now, really if I wanted to I would burn you to a crisp, maybe then people will have good reason to dislike me."

The Merchant was terrified at how calmly the Dimi-Human spoke about burning him alive and quickly gave up "Okay Okay you win just don't hurt me!" Gunther grinned as he let go of the man "So we have a deal then, give me that same price you that man and well act like this never happened."

The Merchant nodded fearfully "Of course Sir, we were just simply speaking about prices and your not some scary Demi-Human no no sir." He said to Gunther before giving him his 12 coppers. "Thanks, also, tell any other Merchant around that if they don't treat me like just another customer," Gunther said happily at first before looking much more serious "then they'll find their store burnt to the ground."

"Y-Yes, I promise I will." Gunther smiled now, feeling surprisingly better now than before, and held out a hand to sack the Merchants with "Think you for your understanding." The Merchant simply shook his hand quivering "Y-Yes, have a nice day." Just hearing that made Gunther's day all that much better as he left with his 12 coppers.

Feeling quite satisfied Gunther left the stall but soon he stopped when he saw some plants that he recognized in what he could see was an herbalist store. Gunther then remembered the dream he had and smiled sadly, at least he still had his memories of his family to keep to his heart.

With his spirits much higher than before Gunther walked down the road and went the Blacksmiths shop, the man wasn't there so Gunther left 6 coppers on the table, even split for them both he thought. Leaving Gunther wondered if he should wait and see if the Blacksmith would return but knew he still had a lot to do.

When it turned dark again Gunther went to grind some more monsters and came up with more balloon fragments to sell. Checking his status he grimaced at how much time it was going to take to level up at this rate. Groaning he laid down in the soft green grass and wrapped himself in his cloak to rest for the night.

Once the sun had risen again the Demi-Human wondered if there were some herbs in the forest, maybe he could sell them for a good price. After some time searching and smelling he found a patch growing next to a tree and plucked a leaf to taste. It was just as bitter as he remembered and soon he wondered if letting his shield absorb it will do anything.

Much to the Shield hero's delight it did, unlocking 3 new shields, but the one that caught his interest the most was the leaf shield. Saying its name out load the small shield he had before glowed before changing into a shield that looked like a leaf. Intrigued Gunther pulled out his journal and read that the shield can increase the quality of any plants or herbs he picks up. Skeptical of this Gunther decide to test this out and picked up the part of the herb. The pice he took glowed before looking much healthy and thus more effective as an ingredient.

With awe in his eyes he took a leaf and placed it in his mouth before scrounging up his face, yep it was definitely much higher quality. Chewing and swallowing the leaf he went to collecting as many herbs as he can carry, leaving behind a few in each patch he found so more can grow later. Gunther smiled as he closed the bag full of herbs and made his way back to town so he can sell the herbs.

Once he had gotten there and shown the herbalist what he found they were simply surprised "Wow, these are some fine herbs you got here, where did you find them?" Gunther simply grinned "Outside the castle in the forest, my Mother is an herbalist herself so I knew good herbs and plants when I see or taste them." The Herbalist nodded while inspecting one of the herbs "I see, you really must have much better eyes than me, also, you did say taste right? These herbs are bitter you know."

Gunther rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, seeming almost like how he was before everything went downhill for him. "I know, guess I just like the taste." The Herbalist seemed amused by this as he gives Gunther not only a whole lot of coppers but also one silver. The Demi-Human looked up and blinked at the amount of money he was given, seems herbs really are a good source of cash, much better than farming Balloons thats for sure.

Gunther would later send the rest of the day trying to level but find himself realizing that despite having his mage he would eventually hit a wall at how much he can effectively level. The Demi-Human learned this the hard way when trying to fight a monster that was just one level higher then he was and he simply could not kill the darn thing. Degectinted by this Gunther found himself in a bar and ordered some food to eat with his earning.

Sadly Gunther just couldn't find himself enjoying the food he was eating, it wasn't bad as it tasted fine enough but something was bugging him lately that he just could not put his finger on. It was a foul mood that made Gunther feel this way, most likely from the false accusations put against him that he had no way of defending himself from.

As he soon started to feel angry again when he thought about, not only at the king, the heroes and most of all Myne for her lies. But also at himself for letting himself get trapped in such a situation due to being too dumb to see the writing on the wall that was clear as day.

"Oh great Shield Hero!" With a long sigh, Gunther tried to ignore the men behind him as he ate his meal. "We want to join your party if you want." One of the men 'offered' as Gunther toned them out as best he could but finding hard as they were right behind him. "Yeah that's right, thank your lucky star's." The man then laid a hand on his shoulder, reminding Gunther how Myne did so a few days ago and how uncomfortable he felt when she did it and now he knew full well why. These men only had ill intent for him if their tone of voice and actions were anything to go by.

The fact they were talking so confidently only added to the fact that they thought he was easy to fool. Not feeling hungry anymore Gunther simply pulled out two coppers and tossed them at the bartender to tip them for the meal as he left, leaving the thugs to just stand there confused and surprised.

As he walked down an ally he heard one the men from the bar shout at him to stop. Seems they must have followed the Demi-Human for ignoring them and it was getting on Gunther's nerves. "Hey, Shield Brat!" That made him stop walking and stand still as the Thugs started speaking "What hell makes you think you can just walk away eh?"

"Yeah, we only wanted to-" "Rob me of everything that I have earned?" Gunther said shutting them up. One of the thugs just laughed "Hey look, seems the little beast isn't so dumb after all." Gunther growled softly to himself after hearing the word 'beast', they really were trying to sour his mood even further? Turing around at the laughing Things Gunther simply spoke his mind "You know this does seem kinda cliche don't you think?"

The thugs kept laugh "Cliche? What the heck are you on about horny bastard." Gunther felt his eye twitch as he growled much more audibly making the Thugs laugh at him even more as if he was some kinda joke "Aww, are you going to cry now? Hahaha, just save us the trouble and give us all your money all right." With his head downcast Gunther simply looked up, his face showing he wasn't messing around anymore.

"As I said, Cliche, let me guess, you also have a small knife to stab me with?" One the thugs pulled out a knife and showed it off "What, you think you're so clever?" Gunther laughed, he laughed in a way or a goat could making the Thugs fall silent as they heard the creepy laughter coming to form the Demi-Human "Umm, what's so funny jack ass?"

Gunther calmed himself down before looking up with a delish smile "Oh nothing, it's just I don't find myself very clever, only you guess as dumb as a pile of dung!" That ticked off the thug with the knife "I'll show you your disrespecting trash!" Oh, disrespect? All that Gunther got when first getting here in this danm town was disrespect. As the knife-wielding thug ran at him Gunther simply raised his hand and cast fireball at the Thug with an evil look on his face.

Seeing how bad of a decision he had made the Thug tried to duck only to get hit by the fire anyway and flew back as he got up and panicked before frantically putting himself out."Now, Leave me alone or I'll make sure people only Find Your Ashes!" Gunther shouted at them throwing another ball their way making them run away screaming back at him "You really are a Demon!"

Gunther stood frozen at that as the Thugs ran for their lives and looked back down at his hands. "What am I doing..." Gunther said aloud to himself. The Demi-Human was not really this willing to burn someone, was he? Forming his hands into fists he groaned at how much things had escalated as he remembers what he also did to that Merchant when they tried to swindle him out of a deal.

Gunther had threatened the man with death by fire and to burn down others lively hoods if they did not treat him right. He found enjoyment in that and only now did he realize that he had been enjoying threatening people, terrorizing them so that they might treat him fairly. "Please, promise me that you won't be a bad guy..." Those words echoed through his head as he tried to convince himself that he was simply standing up for himself, that he was simply making sure people respected him not for being the Shield hero or being a Demi-Human but for who he is.

Yet all Gunther has shown people so far is that he is a man who will kill you if he does not get his way. Gunther wasn't like that, not like that at all, but was he really just thinking to make himself feel better.

The feeling of loneliness came creeping back as he thought about how bad of a person he had been these few days, how his bitterness has gotten the better of him. _"please don't be a bad guy..."_ Gunther simply fell down onto his knees as they suddenly grew weak. He was alone, and without someone to back him up he won't be able to level or change, but no one will willingly join Gunther and he was not going to resort to violent acts just to even the odds.

Without someone to help him he can't fight effectively, sure Gunther can defend and throw fireballs as long as he wants but that does not mean crap if he can't deal enough damage to win a battle. And if Gunther can win fights he will never level up and gain new skills and stats to even the score. For all intents and purposes, the Demi-Human was stuck in a loop that he simply can get himself out of with a companion to pull him out of.

As he focused on this Gunther started getting angry at how unfair this all was, why does life have to make him suffer so much, what did he do to deserve any of this! Anyone nearby heard the sound a goat screaming and quickly avoided the area, for the time being, Gunther who had made the scream proceeded to start banging his head into a wooden support beam. This form of stress relief soon found him actually head-butting the thing in half, seems that being a goat Demi-Human made it so is head buts are very strong compared to his normal attacks.

Taking the time to breathe and nurse his head Gunther wondered just what he was going to do.

"Well I gotta say that right there is impressive," Gunther stopped before turning around seeing a Short man with a top hat and very expensive-looking attire, their toothy smile sending shivers up his spin as everything about this man shouted shady. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised given how thick headed you goat types are." Staring a the man Gunther suddenly felt like he was being studied, every each of him measured and weighed as if he was some sort of animal being sold.

"W-What do you want?" Gunther said studdering as the short man never seemed to stop smiling. "Hmmm, Is a goat, studders and has does not handle stress well..." The Demi-Human did not like where this was going "Do happen to be named Gunther by any chance?" He really did not like how this man was talking right now and started to get ready to run "Y-Yes"

The Short man somehow found a way to smile even more as he became greatly amused "Seem you grew up since I last saw you, you were barely able to keep your self together at that slave auction 5 years ago. If I knew you would become the Shield I would have joined in and betted dubble the amount then the rest of the lot there at the time." Gunther's skin grew paler than it already was when he heard that.

"Y-Your, a Slave Trader!" The Slave Trader simply chuckled to himself "Right on the money kid, and don't worry about me trying to drag you back into slavery as while a Demi-Human like you would sell for a lot, It just wouldn't be worth the trouble." Gunther did not feel reassured at all by that. "W-Well, why are you even here then!" The Demi-Human shouted out. Moving their hands up the Slave Trader scratched his chin "I'm here to make you an offer if you're interested in hearing me out."

Gunther just gritted his teeth, now having composed himself and was glaring hatefully a the man "And why the hell should I listen to an evil snake like you! No thanks, I'm leaving" As Gunther stopped off the Slave trader shouted out to him "Do you really think you'll get that far on your own?" The Shield hero stopped with his back facing the man "I can tell you wont be ready for the moment the wave hits and you will be ripped to shreds before you so even got the chance to breathe."

Gunther tried to ignore the Slavers voice but he knew his words spoke true "I'm here to offer you a chance to even the odds, a chance to survive." The Slaver then walked up right behind Gunther before saying in a quiet voice "A chance to have a have a companion that will be at your beckon call..."

Gunther was still for the longest time before turning around to face the Slaver "You mean, you want me to buy a slave from you..." The Slave Trader grinned "That's right, so, what will it be hero?" The Demi-Human wanted to say no, every part of him wanted to say no, he knew any former slave like himself would say no. But Gunther knew that this was his only chance at being able to level properly, to finally not be alone.

He tried to speak but no words came out as they got caught in his throat. But soon he made his choice, asking silently for his Mother and Father to forgive him should they ever meet again "I-I...I accept your offer..." The Slaver smiled at the Demi-Human, his reluctant words like music to his ears. "I knew you wouldn't refuse. Now come follow me, We have Much to Discuss."

As the Slaver started walking away Gunther felt like something died on the inside, a feeling of guilt swelling over him. But he none the less followed the Slaver, for what else is he too? Gunther felt horrible, but he keeps the promise he made to heart _"Don't be a bad guy."_ He promises he won't be, even if he gets does a slave, he wont be a monster...


	7. Chapter 7

Gunther was standing outside of the Slavers Auction House with a feeling of growing dread, the Demi-Human hear people caged up inside. By this point, Gunther had been having second thoughts about all this. But he knew it was his only choice if he was going to even have a chance at fighting the waves. The Slaver then waved him over with their cane and the Demi-Human sighed as he walked into that dreaded building.

As Gunther walked in he saw the Slaver reading a book at the front desk before closing it and turning to face him "So I have read through my registry here and have some slaves to show you." Gunther simply nodded before checking the bag to count how much he had. After a few days of work from selling herbs and balloon fragments, he had about 30 silver. Not a whole lot really but it was a good amount to live on, and now here he was off to spend it on a slave...

The Slaver noticed the look on Gunther's face "What, having second thoughts?" They said amused as Gunther sighed sadly. "No just...conflited that's all..." The Demi-Human heard the Slaver laugh at that "Oh now that's a word, if it helps to remember that a Demi-Human without an owner is usually hunted down and either killed or sold to men like myself. Think of what you're doing not as buying a slave but giving them 'protection'."

Gunther did not at all feel any better at that before reaching into his shield and pulling out his slavering. The Slaver raised an eyebrow "A Slavering? Your Master must have really trusted you enough to obey them then." Gunther sighed as he looked at his slavering before shaking his head "Let's just get this over with."

The Slaver was pleased to hear this "Then let us waste no time." The two then made their way to the back where the slaves were kept, old memories of a dark and cramped space inside a metal cage crawling back. As he entered the room he could feel so many eyes from the cages in the room, all of them at first with confused before he felt them change to that of hate. He did not blame them, he was a Demi-Human after all and they must have heard him speaking with the Slaver before coming in.

"Now then, I have to ask, what are you looking for?" Gunther simply stood as he heard pained groans and growling around him, the Demi-Human feeling like those who were seeing him wanted to rip him apart. The Slaver poked Gunther with his cane before asking again what he wanted snapping the Shield back from his thoughts. "I-I, well who are the cheapest you can offer?... And someone who I can...control." Gunther felt sick saying that, even more so when the Slaver chuckled to themselves "Oh ho ho, I think you mean to say, you want a Demi-Human?"

Gunther could not find his voice, and thus simply nodded before moving out of the way of a hand that struck out at him. Looking over he was a beastmen who's looked quite strong and most likely could rip him into if they were not contained in a cage. Gunther felt bad for the beastmen as it tried to claw at him, hate clearly seen in its eye as they glared at him. The Slaver tsked at this and waved Gunther over "Come on, I'll show you some cheap slaves to chose from."

Ripping his eyes away from the caged beastmen he fallowed over to the Slaver to some cages. As Gunther simply toned out the Slaver as he started speaking his clearly rehearsed lines the Demi-Human pulled out his slavering again and thought that maybe he should reconsider while he still can. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard someone young cough, fallowing the sound he found the source of the coughing and moved the drape out of the way to look into the cage.

Right there was a girl in rags who seemed to be sick, when she looked up she backed away fearful and was clearly frighted and confused. Gunther stared at her with sympathy, he knew that feeling of fear that she must be feeling all too well. The Slaver walked over "Ah the raccoon girl, she has a fun little story you know, her last owner liked torture all a little too much and ended up killing one of his other slaves." Gunther gritted his teeth when hearing that "So when they got tired of this girl I brought her up, sadly she's not going to last long so how about-"

"No." Gunther said now facing the Slaver with a face full of emotions "I'll buy her." The girl gasped as she curled into herself and looked away as the Slaver raised an eyebrow "Are you sure, I'm sure I can-" Gunther glared at the Slaver with contempt before walking right up to him "I'm buying her and that finale!" There were a tense few moments, the silence only broken by the raccoon girls coughing. Finally, the Slaver smiled as he looked Gunther in the eye "Now that's the person I was looking for when I heard of you." Gunther flinched at that but did his best not to let the Slaver notice.

"Well if your willing to pay then let's get this sorted out" Gunther saw as the Slaver got some of his not so friendly looking assistants to open the cage and bring the girl over to the front desk, watching the girl cry fearful while coughing every so often. He tried to ignore it but doing so only made hearing her cries hurt even more.

Soon they were in the Desk room and the Slavers assistants left leaving only Gunther, the Slaver and the girl. "Now then we're going to need to give her a slave crest to formally identify her as your slave." Gunther and the girl this and both stiffened as the Slaver pointed at the dest with a bowl and a small knife "Just draw some blood and well be set."

Gunther looked from the table and back the raccoon girl who simply stared at him with eyes that begged him not to. The Demi-Human had already made his choice before this, however, "No, just a slavering will do." The seemed to look at him with surprise while the slaver sighed "So you want to do that then? Fine by me, still need your blood though so that you're both at least linked together, can have you losing track of your slave now can we?"

Gunther sighed as he walked over and pulled out his own slavering, the raccoon girl wondering why the Demi-Human was walking around with one. As the girl put the pieces tougher the Slave took Gunther's slavering and placed it in the bowl as it glowed with the engravings fading away, Gunther briefly feeling something lift off his shoulders. The Slaver then picked the ring before engraving something his name and another name, which he assumed belonged to the girl, and when he was done both Gunther and the girl felt a sudden weight fall onto both of them.

"And done, here you go, all you have to do now is place it on her wrist and she's your's" Gunther did not say anything as he pulled out 20 silvers and gave them to Slaver before taking the slavering. Holding it again made him feel extremely heavy, knowing the ring that marked him as a slave with now be given to another just made Gunther's change emotions erratically.

"Sorry about this," Gunther told the girl who stared at the ring in his hand. "It worries about this hurting, I've had one on before so believe me..." The girl seemed to feel conflicted when he said that, on one hand, she doubted his words as she did not trust him. But he was also a Demi-Human like herself if the horns sticking out of his head were real, that and given that ring seemed to use to be his own...

The girl outstretched her left arm, her whole body shaking as she just wanted to get this over with while coughing again. Gunther saw this and sat down on the floor next to the shaking Demi-Human and carefully slipped on the ring on to her wrist as it resized to fit her. The raccoon girl was supposed to not feel any pain and looked over at Gunther who had let out a breath he did not know he was holding. The two then blinked as they saw an aura around each other and Gunther quickly pulled out his Status Journal.

Gunther saw that Party Status was highlighted and opened to the page to see that it was not only him there but also the girl. "Raphtalia..." He spoke out load making the girl nervous at how he knew her name. Gunther did not notice this but decided to think about that later. Standing up he reached down a hand to Raphtalia who quickly looked away thinking he was going hit her but slowly looked back he no such thing came.

Gunther held out his hand for her so she can use it to get up "Come on, get up." he said softly as to not scare her. Raphtalia looked at Gunther and then back at his hand with uncertainty before taking it and slowly got up. Once she was on her Gunther crouched down to her hight trying to make himself look less threatening. "Look, I can tell how your feeling, but you have to follow what I say, can you do that?" Raphtalia heard how kind he was speaking and found his words as well as concerned sincere and nodded slowly.

"Then let us get you something other than those rags to wear alright," Gunther told Raphtalia as he stood up and started to walk out of the shop with Raphtalia close behind. The Slaver waved them goodbye "Come again if you feel need some more companions!" Gunther toned him out, he wasn't sure he wanted to come back, he might have to but for now, he simply looked down at the small girl walking alongside him. Silently he made a promise that he won't put her through anything that she can't handle and would protect her as best he could.

Soon the two found themselves at the Blacksmiths shop and the pair entered. The Blacksmith looked up and recognize Gunther immediately, smiling knowing that he was okay. He also quickly noticed that he seemed a little depressed before looking down and seeing a young Demi-Human girl standing behind him. "Um, who's that you got their Gunther?" The Blacksmith asked as Raphtalia tired to make herself disappear behind Gunther and failing.

Gunther let his head hang down shamefully "This is Raphtalia...I brought her from a slave trader..." The Blacksmith looked at Gunther with wide eyes and saw how much it pained the Shield hero to say that. "Kid, I'm not sure what to even say to that..." Raphtalia started coughing which made Gunther kneel down and rub her back with her cough. The girl froze at his touch but soon calmed down when she was sure he was not hurting her.

Once Raphtalia stopped cough Gunther looked over to the Blacksmith "Just...do you have anything that she can wear?" The Blacksmith had seen the rags Raphtalia was in and nodded "I got something her size." Gunther was happy for that and stood up "Come on Raphtalia, let's get you some new clothes." Soon he was waiting for Raphtalia to get dressed and was looking at the Party Status and sighed. Gunther read a small bit at the top of the page that when in a party the members would share exp, what was used to level, and given that Myne was not on the list when she joined him it became clear they did not sure any exp.

While this might seem like a bad thing it at least meant that any exp he got from grinding on the first night did not get sent to her. Gunther then felt angry when thing about the red haired women, her lies got him into this mess after all. But given how he just got Raphtalia out of a situation where she would have been doomed to die, well Gunther can thank the women for that as much as he disliked it.

Soon enough Raphtalia came out wearing clothes that made her look much more like a normal girl, the only thing standing out was the slavering on her left wrist that she rubbed unconsciously. "They look good on you kid!" The Blacksmith complemented Raphtalia who nodded softly to him in return. "T-Thank you sir."

Gunther smiled, to see her in something that was not falling apart warmed his heart, and he was sure Raphtalia appreciated having new clothes. Gunther then frowned when he remembered the first reason why he brought a slave, to begin with "Hey Blacksmith." The man smiled at Gunther while Raphtalia moved around to get used to her new clothes "Just call me Erhard Gunther." Nodding at now knowing the Blacksmiths name he asked: "So, Um, having anything she can use as a weapon?"

Erhard sighed understanding what Gunther would not say out loud "I'll take a look don't worry, I just hope you know what you're doing..." Gunther couldn't look Erhard in the eye when he said that and simply sat down to wait while watching Raphtalia.

Soon he heard someone else come into the store and looked over to see who it was, his eyes widening in surprise. Standing right their was The Bow hero Itsuki who stared at him while Gunther blinked owlishly as he found trouble forming words. Noticing Gunther's sudden loss for words Raphtalia saw Itsuki and tilted her head "Sir who's that?"

Itsuki saw the young Demi-Human and looked over to Gunther "Gu-"Before the hero could start Gunther suddenly stood up and pulled him to the side, leaving Itsuki to wondered what the heck was going on while Raphtalia stood still watching this unfold with Erhard walking in with a short dagger before also wondering what the heck Gunther was up to.

As Gunther had pulled Itsuki aside he let them go "Okay Gunther what was that about, who was that girl?" The bow hero asked as Gunther sighed "Want the short or long story?" Gunther told Itsuki who replied, "Give me the short version."

Gunther looked down in shame "I bought a slave." Itsuki was momentarily shocked before he stared at the Demi-Human with disapproval "Explain..." Gunther could tell his fellow hero was not at all happy if his tone was to go by, but Itsuki also seemed concerned as well. Explain everything he could Gunther told the Bow hero about he saw he was going to hit a wall soon with how fast he could level and so after being approached by the Slave Merchant he made the hard but necessary decision to buy a slave.

Itsuki for his part seemed furious that Gunther would even consider such an option that was immoral. But even he could see why Gunther chose it given the circumstances the Shield hero was in. "At least tell me you feel bad about this." Gunther looked up at Itsuki "Of course I do, heck I wanted to leave but...seeing Raphtalia in such a state I just couldn't bring my self to leave her there..." Itsuki looked Gunther over a few time to see if he was lying and was relieved to know he was telling the truth.

"Gunther looks, I can tell that this is necessary for you but this does not seem like you." Gunther looked down once more as Itsuki was right, he would never have bought a slave, hell he was still technically a slave himself, but Gunther felt Ituki did not need to know that "That's true, but I can tell you im going to treat her like a person rather than some sort of object. I can promise that much..."

Looking again at Gunther Ituki stared into the Demi-Humans eyes and saw just how conflicted he was over this. With a sigh, Ituki pulled out a bag pulled out a few slivers "What are you doing?" Gunther asked wondering why Ituki was taking out some money "I'll help you pay for her clothes and weapon Gunther, you were forced into this and I'm going to make sure you get on your feet."

Gunther had no idea what today to that, he was short on cash after paying for Raphtalia but at that same time, he just couldn't aspect the money outright. "Before you saying anything, I'm helping you whether you like it or not. You're younger then we are and I have come to accept that this world is not just simply a game." Slipping 10 slivers into Gunther's hand he also whispered into his ear "We're here for you okay, im not sure about Motoyasu but if you just ask me or Ren for help we will do our best to assist alright."

Gunther was in disbelief by this and looked back down at the Slivers as tears fell from his eyes "T-Thank you, I almost thought you guys forgot about me..." Ituki just shook his head "We didn't, you're a hero like us after all and we need to keep track of each other if we are to fight off the waves to keep people safe." Gunther felt a sense of hope to fill his heart and hugged Ituki tightly while burying his head into the heroes shoulder " T-Thanks, it means a lot knowing I have someone watching my back."

Ituki hugged Gunther back as well "Well, what are friends for?" At hearing the word friend Gunther smiled sadly "I wouldn't know to be honest with you." Disengaging from their hug Ituki nodded "Don't worry, im sure you will know soon enough. Now I need to talk with the shop owner about some armor. I hope we get to speak again Gunther!"

Gunther also hoped so before hearing Raphtalia cough, reminding him about her and ran over to check on the sick girl. Ituki smiled seeing the Demi-Humans concern for the kid, it seems even after everything that has happened, Gunther's still the same nervous and kind hearted farm boy he meet when he first got here to this world.


	8. Chapter 8

Myne was drinking some wine in her room, and she was not that particularly happy. She had been sure the Shield hero would be having a hard time and would have resorted to underhanded tactics in order to get by. However, from what Myne had heard it seems the Demi-Human was doing just fine, yes they had threatened a few people but that was just it, a few. Scowling Myne went to thinking of a way to ruin that Demi-Humans day, as she planed she remembered some key things that she had looked over for some time now.

The first was that he seemed to be a native to Melromarc, if that was true then the Demi-Human must have been a slave. A cruel smiled appeared on her lips, she would have to think of a way to use that against the Shield hero later should it come to light that he is a slave. For now, Myne will let him run free, but mark her words she'll get what she wants.

Taking another sip from her cup she started to think of what to do with the Demi-Human after all is set and done. The quick answer was to kill him, but Myne had something different in mind for the goat. No, she wanted to break him down piece by piece and see how long that optimism of his lasted.

Myne started to giggle at the thought of torturing the Shield hero, but that was to come later, as she has yet to find a good reason to bring him in. While being the shield hero and a Demi-Human might be good enough, Myne wanted to make sure that boy was woefully humiliated in the worst way possible.

...

Gunther shivered as he cooked some beef for Raphtalia to eat, the feeling of someone planning to do some horrible things to him making his instincts warn him of the potential or even inevitable danger. Raphtalia noticed this but stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt Gunther while he cooked. Soon enough Gunther felt satisfied that the beef was cooked and took out a small knife to make a small cut into it to be sure it was, in fact, ready to be eaten.

Seeing that it was properly cooked Gunther handed it over to Raphtalia who slowly took it from his hand and took a bit out of the meat. Raphtalia found it quite tasteful, it was not the best but it was certainly much better than what she was given by the Slaver. Gunther watched smiling softly as Raphtalia ate the beef, most if not all the taverns in the town did not serve Demi-Human, while he himself had gotten away with eating their as Gunther himself did not care much for the stupid rule he did not want to risk both of them going in at the same time and getting yelled at.

Thus the Shield hero had gone and brought some beef to cook as it turned out to be quite cheap for a pound of meat. Once Raphtalia had finished her meal Gunther stood up and waved for the girl to do the same "So Raphtalia, ready to fight some Balloons?" The Shield hero saw her shake her head no. Sighing he waved her to follow anyway, Gunther was not going to force her to fight, but that did not mean he wasn't going to try and get her to do it willingly.

It took a while but soon enough he found a balloon, the monster scaring Raphtalia as it tried to bite her but Gunther grabbed it and held it out for her to stab it. "Okay, now stab it!" he ordered her as the monster tried to get out of his hands. Raphtalia slowly pulled out her knife and held it out in front of her, however, it seems she was too frightened to attack the balloon.

Seeing this Gunther looked down and quickly turned the balloon around so it was facing him and had its back to Raphtalia. "Is this better?" Gunther asked the slave girl. Raphtalia only stood frozen in place, still not wanting to attack the thing even if its mildly scary face was not glaring at her anymore.

Gunther was now getting annoyed at this point and groaned, they weren't going to get anywhere at this rate. "Raphtalia, please just stab it, really it's not that hard!" Gunther yelled at her making her shrink a little, seeing this the Shield just threw the balloon behind him, he can't bring himself to make her fight.

As Gunther looked down at the grass Raphtalia lower her knife and started to worry he might punish her for not obeying him. As she debated him herself she screamed when the balloon-tired to bite her only for the monster to find itself grabbed again by Gunther. "Okay I'm going to say this one more time, stab the balloon or-" He did not get to finish as Raphtalia had made up her mind and yelled as she stabbed the monster.

It was killed almost instantly as Raphtalia had a much higher attack than Gunther did and the Demi-Human girl fell back but first onto the grass. Gunther about to congratulate her on killing it but soon heard Raphtalia sob a little. He knew this was going to be a long day from this point forward and walked over and knelt down in front of the girl.

"Hey, please don't cry, I know it might be scary but it's not that hard to fight." Gunther words did not make her any less afraid, but it did stop her from crying outright. Glad that Raphtalia was alright he helped her up to her feet. "Come on, let's find some more Balloon's to pop," As he said this Gunther saw Raphtalia only nod as she picked up her knife again.

"Hmmm, How about this, you help me defeat some more monsters and I promise to buy you something when we get back. Is that alright?" Raphtalia looked up at Gunther when he said that "I-I would like that..." Smiling softly Gunther felt happy that she was going to go through with helping him farm. "Then let us not waste any more time!"

The two spent the next 5 hours fighting different balloon types as well as foraging for more herbs to sell. Having found himself with a few more slivers and coppers then he would have without Raphtalia's help Gunther thought hard on what to get for her. _"Well, as a Kid I always wanted to play ball..."_ With this in mind, he noticed Raptalia looking at a man selling balls on a rug and saw her tail sway side to side. "_Looks like I'm getting her that ball then."_

When he brought the ball he walked behind Raphtalia and tapped her on the shoulder making her jump slightly before turning around "S-Sorry Sir I did-Huh?" She stopped when she saw Gunther holding out a ball to her. "I promised that I would get you something and I thought to myself that you would like something to play with." Lightly tossing the ball to Raphtalia Gunther held out his own hands ready to catch.

Unsure of what Gunther wanted her to do she quickly put together that he wants to play catch and threw the ball to him as he caught it with both hands having gotten used to grabbing balloons out of the air. The two then kept tossing the ball back and forth, Raphtalia even starts to laugh happily as they played. Gunther himself also smiled, he was spending some time to have fun for once, something that the two of them had not had in a long while.

Soon they had to stop play tho as a small crowd had formed around them wondering why these two Demi-Humans were playing on the side of the street. Noticing this he caught the ball and stared at the group and smile sheepishly before waving Raphtalia to fallow him as they made their way away from the crowd quickly to avoid trouble.

Once they were away Gunther chuckled as he held onto the ball before laughing nervously "Okay, that was close, don't know what they were watching us for but I did not want us to stick around to find out." As the goat Demi-Human calmed himself he felt a light tug on his leg from Raphtalia "So um, want to keep playing?"

As much as Gunther wanted to, he did not want another crowd to form around them "Sorry, well play later okay." The girl looked slightly sad at first before smiling softly "Okay." With both their spirits high they set out to find some more monster to fight, but not before Gunther bought a water skin so they had something to drink.

Soon enough Gunther and Raphtalia had finished up farming balloons as well as a few new mushroom ones they found, to which Gunther used their remains to unlock some new shields such as the mush shield. As he read about what these shields did Raphtalia took some sips from the water skin before asking "Um sir, I have to ask...why did you have a slave ring on you?"

Gunther stopped read as he looked up at her "I was wondering when you would ask that..." Seeing her master suddenly act so solemn made Raphtalia panic "U-Um I mean, you don't have to say anything about it jus-" Raising a finger in front of her mouth to silence her Gunther sighed "Its okay, I guess I can skip over the fact that I'm...I was a slave. Just held onto the slavering as just throwing it away would mean someone finding it and come back to 'calm me'."

Raphtalia looked back down at her wrist and then as Gunther's, a Shield in place of the ring he used to wear. "So, you escaped you own master!?" The Shield hero shook his head "No, just got summoned here to fight as a hero I was expecting at least just a little respect, given im a Demi-Human with a shield however I should have known better..." After saying that Gunther stretched ou,t a little before yawning as he felt his fatigue catch up to him. "I would talk more but, yawn, I think we can both agree we need some rest."

"O-Oh, right sir." Raphtalia said before Gunther sighed as he set up their beds "Please, just call me Gunther." The girl nodded "Right, well, night Gunther." Raphtalia said somewhat awkwardly as Gunther laid down and pulled his blanket over himself "Good night Raphtalia." With that Gunther slowly close his eyes as sleep took him back to dream land.

_Again Gunther found himself as the mountain village, the place now bustling with activity due to the Autumn Festival, something the Demi-Human had looked forward to every one. With all the food, the dances, and music as well as all the fun stories the elders would tell of the heroes. _

_His favorite stories were that of the shield hero, of course, their tales of Adventure protection of the innocent while still fighting off the bad guys filled his with joy. Now having that hero's same shield those stories now made him feel small, for how was he supposed to be as skillful and powerful as the hero that was foretold in legends._

_Feeling a tug on the back of his shirt Gunther turned around to see his younger self offering him an apple "Here, I think you would like, it's fresh from the tree!" Ah yes, Gunther remembers that apple tree well, that large tree in the center of the village had always been their ever since he was a child. Standing taller than all the building in the village its branches grew fresh apples one could pluck for themselves for a quick snack._

_Taking a bite out of the apple Gunther smiled, it might have only been a dream, but he knew well how tasty the apples were in Autumn. "So...I see that we bought a slave..." Gunther was halfway done eating the apple when his younger self said that and stopped to look at them "I know, it really looks and is bad. But given how I can't really put much trust in others who aren't the other heroes I couldn't see what else to do."_

_His younger self still did not seem happy but sighed "Well, at least you treating her like liven being rather then some of our other masters did with their slaves" Gunther winced at that, so this younger Gunther did know just as much as he did. "I would never act like them, they may have acted kindly to me but I knew just what they did to everyone else...some times I wish I could forget too..." Both of them shivered before blocking out those unpleasant memories, no need to be reminded of how cruel humans can be._

_"Looking past that, I just hope you keep your promise to be a good person, you almost comply broke it remember!" Something about being chastised by himself made Gunther feel horrible, maybe it was a fact that he acknowledges the bad things he had done but Gunther was not completely sure._

_However, before Gunther could reply the two stopped when they heard weeping and crying, it was Rahptalia. His younger self then pushed him and Gunther found himself falling down "Well talk later okay, just be safe!"_

Waking up and jolting upright he heard Raphtalia crying and yelling. Looking over to where she was sleeping Gunther saw her toss and turn while calling out to someone. Running over quickly as soon as he got their Raphtalia jolted out of bed crying reaching out "Mother, Father please come back!" Hearing her words made him realize she was having a bad nightmare, something he used to have. But unlike him, Raphtalia had someone to calm her down, reaching and hugging her Gunther held the crying Demi-Human as rubbed her back "Calm down please, wants wrong?"

"My Mother and Father, their both Gone!" As Raphtalia broke down Gunther held on tight as he did his best to comfort her, feeling the girl's tears soak into his clothes she kept crying out for her parents."It's alright, no one going to hurt you now." He said rubbing her head as Raphtalia calmed down, his kind honest voice soothing her. "So please, it's going to be okay." Raphtalia sniffed as she hugged him tighter "J-Just, hold me." So Gunther did, not leave her side as she cried into his shoulder, waiting until she fell asleep in his arms and letting her rest in the Demi-Humans safe embrace.

With a sad smiled Gunther pulled a blanket over them both as he sat with his legs crossed, keeping himself awake as Raptalia slept soundly in his arms. He might not get any sleep tonight, but if it meant keeping Raphtalia feeling safe, then he stay awake as long as he needed to...


	9. Chapter 9

Gunther had stayed up all night making sure Raphtalia was able to sleep well, whenever she started to shake he would rub her head to calm the girl while making sure to keep the fire going so she was not cold. As the first rays of sunlight came into view the Demi-Human felt really tired, but he felt happy knowing that Raphtalia had a good nights sleep.

The goat Demi-Human was used to not sleeping anyway so it was no big deal if he waited a little while longer to hit the hay. As he looked around Gunther felt Raphtalia wake up as she yawned, her eyes blinking away the blurriness. Moving the blanket off them he picked up the girl off him carefully as she started to fully awaken and placed Raphtalia so that she was sitting upright on the ground.

Rubbing her eyes Raphtalia saw Gunther and quickly looked around "O-Oh its morning already! Please don't tell me I overslept!" Gunther simply shook his head in amusement "No Raphtalia, you woke up just in time." He smiled seeing Raphtalia breath out a sigh of relief before coughing slightly.

This reminded Gunther that she was still a little sick, reaching into his bag he pulled out some leaves and after activating the mush shield for its compounding bonuses. Raphtalia had stopped her coughing and noticed Gunther had a look of concentration on his face, as if trying to remember something as he pulled out some herbs and other ingredients before he started mixing them tougher.

Soon after some time both Raphtalia and Gunther looked down at what he made, it was some medicine that was contained inside a bottle. Gunther grinned "Hah! Even after five years I still remember my mother's herbal lessons!" After shouting that out triumphantly Gunther suddenly felt saddened, the memory of his mother teaching him what she could about herbal medicine made the Demi-Human wish they were still with his parents.

Raphtalia could see how depressed Gunther became after making that medicine and asked him "U-Um, Gunther? Are you feeling alright?" The young goat snapped out of his bleak mood when he heard her and put on a quick half-hearted smiled "Yes im fine, you don't have to worry yourself about it." Raphtalia could see how fast Gunther tired to hind his feelings and how well he did so, but having seen his mood before so she knew it still bugged him.

Seeing her concern Gunther changed the subject "W-Well as you can see I made some medicine, my mom taught me the recipe for it, I'm sure it will help with your cold." The goat then handed the medicine to Raphtalia who pulled off the cap "Oh and uh, it will taste bitter so prepare yourself for that." Nodding nervously she started to drink it before finding out that, as Gunther told her, it was very bitter.

Pulling the bottle from her mouth she spat out the bitter tasting medicine making Gunther facepalm "I told you it would be bitter Raphtalia!" The Demi-Human wined "Yeah But I never thought it would be That bitter!" The shield dropped his hand from his face and groaned "That's that Point of good medicine, now please Drink the rest of it, we need to go train soon."

The young raccoon girl wined a little more before reluctantly drinking the rest of it. This cured her of her illness but also left a bad taste in her mouth for the next few hours as she and Gunther went to fighting more monsters. The two of them then spend the next few days training and getting money to support themselves, with them spending their nights a little ways away from town as Gunther still did not feel comfortable enough to stay inside the town at an inn as he feared being robbed again or him and Raphtalia being attacked for being Demi-Humans.

In fact, Erhard offered them to stay at his shop if they needed a place to sleep but Gunther told the blacksmith he'll think about it. By now it had been a few days and Gunther was back at the Herbalist's shop speaking with the owner about any books they might have.

"Why yes I have some books in the back you can take for a sliver. Given how skilled you are making Medicine I think it would do better in your hands rather than mine" The Herbalist said making Gunther rub his neck at the compliment "T-Thanks, given how much I still have to learn I thank you for helping me." The Herbalist simply smiled at the Demi-Human "Gunther, your medicine is very well made and you have been helping with keeping my shelves stocked as the effects of the last wave have nearly cleared me out. The least I can do is give you knowledge on how to help more people."

The Herbalist's kind words made The shield hero smile brightly "Thanks, but really I just trying to get by given i'm a Demi-Human and all, if someone's life is saved by my medicine then it'll just make me work twice as hard to make sure people don't suffer." As Gunther said this the Herbalist laughed softly, this so-called 'Shield demon' was nothing of the sort, this kid was kind, well-meaning and would never hurt someone if they were not deserving of punishment.

"That's the life of a hero I suppose, let me get those books for you, my friend." Gunther left the shop with a smiled on his face, so far things were going quite well. People still stared at him with fear and disgust as they always did but he ignored them as he knew they knew there people out there that knew who he really was and cared for him. Soon Gunther was at the blacksmith's shop with the herbal and medicine books he bought and entered to find Raphtalia running up to him "Gunther you back!" The Demi-Human smiling at him as the Shield hero chuckled.

"Yeah, and I got myself some new books to read through when we have some spare time." Raphtalia looked into his bag expectantly before groaning in disappointment "Medicine books...I thought you got a story to read." Gunther could see the sad look on the girls face and patted her on the head "I'll go look for a book for us to read later, for now, lets us go out and train!"

Raphtalia sighed before smiling knowing that Gunther always made sure to own up to his promises. "Okay, Gunther!" Erhard laughed as he Watched the two Demi-Humans from the desk as he looked over a helmet, those two were getting along quite well if he did say so himself. "Remeber to be careful you two, don't go after something you can't handle, don't want to end up not seeing you again." Gunther groaned at Erhard " Don't say things like, besides me and Raphtalia make a good team so don't worry Dad!... Uhhhhh-"

Raphtalia looked at Gunther in supposing while Erhard seemed to take a moment to process what Gunther just said to him "Did you, just call me dad?" Gunther was stumbling over his words as he tried to talk but all that came out of his mouth was a garbled mess. It didn't help that Erhard then started laughing as Gunther's face turned red while Raphtalia held in a giggle of her own. "Y-Yes I d-did, uh let's go Raphtaliabeforeweloselightgoodbye!" The Demi-Human said so quickly that his words molded together and soon pulled Raphtalia out of the shop before Erhard could so much as blink.

The blacksmith sighed while shaking his head with a smile on his face before thinking really hard on what the young goat said to him and the way he acted. _"Did the kid really think of me as his father?"_ The thought lingered in Erhard's mind before he looked down at the helmet he was inspecting.

_"Well, either way, I still hope those two stay safe"_ Erhard though to himself before going back to making sure all the armor was in good condition. Gunther for his part was completely embarrassed questioning why he said that, more importantly, why he let himself say that to Erhard. Yes, Gunther had been seeing the man as a father in a way, they were the first person to believe in him and make sure he was okay. Not only that but ever since he got Raphtalia Gunther found that Erhard was the most helpful of all the adults he had met.

He considers the other heroes as friends, with his relationship with Motoyasu in the air given the last time he saw them was when he headbutted the guy, Gunther only ever saw two people so far as family to him right now. Raphtalia as like a little sister and close friend as they spent the most time tougher, and Erhard, as a father doe to them always worrying about him and Raphtalia's well being and helping the two of them out with finding the best spots to farm for monsters as well as other shop owners who wouldn't mind selling to a Demi-Human much less the Shield hero.

Gunther sighed, he needs to have a talk with the man when he gets back about this, for now, tho he and Raphtalia needed to level gain more levels. They were meet with much the same, orange, red, mushroom Balloons, you know the normal low level monsters. But as Raphtalia popped another balloon with her knife Gunther hummed to himself while looking into the deeper part of the forest while staring at his Status book.

"What is it Gunther?" Raphtalia asked as the young goat read the Journal. "Hmm, I think it's about time we started looking for some stronger monster to fight, can't get better at something without challenging yourself after all. Raphtalia looked a little unsure about Gunther's idea and soon the two heard a rustling in the bushes. Turning around towards the sound the goat Demi-Human raised up his shield while Rahptalia held up her dagger, ready to take on whatever was going to challenge them.

And out of the bushes was, an Usapil, a rabbit-like monster, and this one looked really feisty as he jumped up at Raphtalai who screamed slightly a the new foe before Gunther caught the thing. As it squirmed in his hands Gunther found it hard to keep a hold of, the thing getting out his grip and jumping up while bitting his arm. Gritting his teeth Gunther held the thing still making sure it can't get out his arm and was about to shout to Raphtalita to stab the thing before seeing how hesitant and scared she was as her hands shook.

The Shield hero could tell immediately why she was so hesitant, as unlike the Balloons this Usapil had blood, something he knew the did not want to see. Now he could just burn the thing, but he did not want to subject the two of them with the image of a burning and screaming rabbit. While he thought of a way to solve this Gunther grunted as the Usapil bit down harder, making Raphtalia yelp with concern for him.

Gunther took a few breathed before speaking "Look, I'm not going to lie to you, from this point on, things are just going to get harder. I can't say to you have to like it, I really wish it wasn't this way either. But I can't give up on the reason I was summoned for, I have a responsibility to uphold and I can't do it without your help. I'm hated by nearly everyone, not only for my horns but also this shield, but I won't let that hate distract me from what the right thing to do is, and that is to protect people."

"I know you're scared about all this, believe me, im scared too, were both just kids after all. But if it makes you feel any better we can both be scared kids fighting off monster tougher! It does not make it any better, but its definitely better than working away as a slave or stuck in a cage don't you think?" Gunther knew that while this life was going to be hard on both of them, it was at least not the life of a slave, anything is better than being a slave.

Raphtalia thought on Gunther words, and at first, she thought he was trying to make her feel better by saying he was scared, but looking at his eyes she can tell how much the fact of him being a hero was gnawing at him. Gunther was right, they both were just kids, she was just 10 and young goat 14, but Gunther had no choice but to fight or die. And what about her? Well as Raphtalia gripped her dagger she steeled herself knowing of what she was going to do and charged forward stabbing the rabbit as it screeched before dieing, blood getting all over them both making Raphtalia want to vomit, but as Gunther said "A-Anything is better than being back in that cage, s-so I'll fight with you."

Gunther stood there with wide eyes, he did not think Raphtalia would go ahead and stab the Rabbit, he also saw that her dagger snapped in half as she spoke "You've been so kind to me, almost like a friend, you never made me do anything I never wanted to do and always put my needs before your own. You haven't even had a good nights sleep in the last three days because of me." Raphtalia said, remembering how many times she woke up frightened and how Gunther was always close by to comfort her, the light bags under his eyes telling how little sleep he got.

"I-I'm may be scared, but I have to repay you somehow for your kindness, so even if im scared of blood and monsters, I'll stay by your side because I'd rather be with a friend then in a cold cage." Gunther knelt down to her height, the bushing of some blood from her face before hugging her, to which Raphtalia hugged him back. "T-Thank you Raphtalia, I promise to keep you safe in every fight and place we go too." She had tears in her eyes when Gunther said that to her, the girl was simply happy that she had someone she can put her trust into with the young goat also feeling the same way.

"Come on Raphtalia, let's get back to town and over to Erhard's shop," Gunther said as they stopped hugging and he stood up, rubbing her eyes. "We need to get you a new weapon, that and I need to talk with them." Raphtalia nodded in understanding "Okay." The Shield hero then picked up the dead Usapil, wondering what new shields he could get from it and the two made their way back to town after washing off the blood.

Gunther unlocked two new shields from a few bits from the Usapil and had bought Raphtalia small treat to snack on as they made it back to the blacksmith's store. Before Gunther opened the door he paused a little, remembering what he had told Erhard earlier, taking a deep breath he went inside with Raphtalia in tow as he saw the blacksmith finishing up polishing a chest plate.

Looking up Erhard smiled "You two kids are back, I take it everything went well?" Gunther and Raphtalia both nodded "Yeah it very much did," Gunther stated, still a little embarrassed from calling Erhard dad a few hours ago "Oh and Raphtalia needs a new weapon, her dagger snapped in half." The sigh coming from the blacksmith worried Gunther at first before he saw the smile on Erhard's face as he chuckled.

"Heh, Given how you didn't properly maintain the thing I'm not surprised." Gunther wanted to argue that but stopped while he was ahead as the blacksmith was right. Erhard saw this and grinned before walking over to a box full of swords "Let me see here, Ah there it is" Reaching into the box Erhard pulled out a sheathed iron short sword "This should work nicely for your size Raphtalia, oh and before I forget,"

Erhard reached into his pocket and pulled out a stone "Take this so that you can make sure you can keep future weapons in good shape." Gunther then saw the blacksmith toss the stone to him and he caught it with his hand. "Thanks, Erhard, I'll remember to use this after every fight me and Raphtalia get into."

Gunther then stayed quiet before speaking again "Hey, Can I take up on that offer of yours? I have not had a good nights sleep recently and I think Raphtalia sleeping in a real bed for once would be a nice change of pace." Erhard raised an eyebrow before smiling "Of course, I have a spare room I use when working long nights that you kids can use. It's the least I can do for being such good customers." Gunther smiled while Raphtalia jumped in place happily at the fact she was going to be sleeping on a bed rather than the ground like they had been for the past week.

"Yeah" Gunther stated before yawning as his tiredness caught up to him, "I think we deserve a good rest before we do anything else." Raphtalia agreed with Gunther "Yep, you need your sleep too, you look like you coul-" Gunther fell onto the floor before she could finish as he passed out, the sound of snoring could be heard coming from the young goat. As Raphtalia started to worry over Guntehr Erhard laughed so hard he started gripping his sides "HAH! It was about time he got some sleep, come on let's get this kid into bed."

"R-Right!" Raphtalia said as she was given her iron sword and helped Erhard drag the sleeping hero to bed. Erhard put a blanket over the horned Demi-Human and noticed that his long brown hair was out of the way allowing the blacksmith and Raphtalia to see Gunther's ears. In pace of human ones, a pair of small fluffy goat ones twitching every so often as Gunther snored adorably.

"Wow, I never knew Gunther snored like this"Raphtalia said while Erhard shook his head as Gunther made a goat noise as he turned over in bed before sighing contently. "Well given how he passed out from not sleeping I guess that makes sense." Raphtalia giggled at that before thinking "I know its not my place to ask but, do you think Gunther meant it when calling you dad?"

Erhard went back to asking himself the same thing before shrugging "Well if he wants to call his father then I'm not going to stop him. If he looks up to me in such a way then im happy for him. And to be honest I wouldn't mind it at all, I basically take care of him myself already in a way."

Hearing that coming from the blacksmith made Rahptalia happy as she looked at Gunther and yawned "Thanks great, I'll get to sleep now, good night!" Erhard nodded as Raphtalia went over the other bed "Good night kids, let your dreams be good." As Raphtalia got to sleep Erhard looked over as the sleeping goat and sighed _"Guess im going to be taking care of you kids then."_ The blacksmith thought as he carefully closed the door to the bedroom, Gunther smiling to himself as he dreamed of being with his family as well as Raphtalia and Erhard back home eating warm apple pie.


	10. Chapter 10

Gunther was roused from his sleep by the sound of Raphtalia sobbing in her sleep. Quickly getting up he barely noticed that he had been resting in a proper bed, his only concern was for the well being of his friend."Raphtalia?" Gunther said in a soft tone as to not frighten her as he places a hand carefully onto her shoulder. The crying Demi-human then froze momentarily from the contact before meekly asking "G-Gunther? Is that you?"

Turning around Raphtalia sat up and was relieved to see the young goat hero "S-Sorry for waking you up..." Gunther just shook his head with a small smile. "Don't be, I needed to wake up sooner or later." This made the raccoon girl sigh, Gunther was just so forgiving, but that was something she was happy for.

Gunther then took a whiff of the air and smelled something foul that made him blinked. "Did you wet the bed?" The shield hero asked plainly in an upset tone that made Raphtalia shrink "Y-Yes..." Gunther groaned to himself, Erhard was so going to get mad at them for this. Hearing Raphtalia beginning to cry again the young goat frowned. Soon he raised a hand up making Raphtalia close her eyes before feeling him pat her head.

"It's not your fault, you had a nightmare and all the water you drink yesterday did not help." Gunther told her as pulled his hand away and took out a hairbrush from his bag. "Come on, let's get that hair of yours combed...after we clean the sheets and your clothes." Raphtalia nodded quickly, being grateful for the shield hero's compassionate if at times awkward nature.

Just Gunther thought Erhard was not too happy with the wet sheets, but once the two promised to clean and pay for it the blacksmith couldn't stay mad at them. The two Demi-Human's then spent the next three days doing what came to be their daily routine, fight some monsters, forage for herbs and plants, then near the end of the day sell what they got and buy some food to cook before sleeping at Erhard's shop.

Gunther even bought a spell book, it was not a complete one as it was for beginners but it helped the young goat learn a new fire spell that sent out a stream of flames at his target. Even with this new spell under his belt, Gunther still had to rely on Raphtalia to do most of the damage. It's not like he did not mind, the two of them made a great team and the Demi-Human was happy to take all the hits for her so she can land the final blow.

But really he just hoped that he might soon be able to pull his own weight around. For now, however, he had to make sure Raphtalia was given the love and care she needed, while also helping Erhard with things around the shop to earn their keep. It was after the third day that he reviewed their levels and noticed something, they were not gaining Xp fast enough.

Having leveled up so quickly given Gunther fire spells and Raphtalia's high attack the two Demi humans found themselves at level 13 and 12 respectively. Thus Gunther went to the one person he knew might know were they can go next. "So Erhard, any places that we can go to at our skill level to fight stronger monsters?" The shield hero asked the blacksmith, having come to trust the man great in the past week and a half.

"Well, lute village should be a good place to start, only about a days travel on foot." Gunther nodded as Raphtalia sharpened her sword while kicking her feet idly. "That sounds good, and if we start walking now we should be there by tomorrow morning. Thanks, da-Erhard." The blacksmith raised an eyebrow as he caught what Gunther was about to say, the young goat smiling nervously while rubbing the back of their neck.

"Your welcome kid, oh and before I forget to say it try to be careful while you two kids are out there, monsters get a lot tougher the farther you go out into the wilderness. So take my advice, if you see something you think you can't handle," Erhard leaned over his desk and into Gunther face with a grim expression that made Gunther lean back "Then you ran as fast as you can okay."

Gunther quickly nodded, Erhard can be very serious when he wanted to be, making the young Demi-Human nod reassuringly. 'D-Don't worry Erhard, the two of us will be careful, I promise." After a short stare from the blacksmith they sighed and went back to smiling "I sure do hope so, not sure how I'll feel if I don't see you two again."

That right their made Gunther pause, he could feel Erhards worry and so put on his brightest smile. "Oh come on don't be like that old man, I'm the shield hero, there's not much that me and Raphtalia can't handle. And if there was we'll be sure to steer clear of it!" Erhard laughed as he heard Gunther optimism, this kid would not willingly jump into danger. Then again the young goat was the shield hero so all the blacksmith could hope for was the two kids did not go in over their heads.

"Alright kid, I believe you, also I'm not that old." Gunther just smiled childishly "Well you are to me at least!" Both of them burst into laughter after a few moments, the two of them see just how dumb it was to argue about that. "Ah, anyway, Raphtalia!"

The girl had just finished sharpening her sword and quickly got to her feet, running over to Gunther "Yes?" She asked having not paid attention to what the two were talking about. The young goat grinned as he turned to face her before exclaiming "Were going on an adventure!" Erhard sighed, that kid had way too much enthusiasm, then again Gunther was still a child at heart despite all that has happened to them.

It kinda concerned him too, as at times he was unsure whether the Demi-Human was putting on a smile to hide what he was really feeling. However, when Erhard looked over at the young goat all he saw was a naive but well meaning guy, and someone who has to deal with a false reputation hanging over him.

None the less Erhard wave the two goodbye as the Demi-Humans left to start on their journey to lute village. Gunther found the journey slightly uneventful, and soon when Raphtalia got tired from walking let her hop onto his back so she can rest. Gunther had carried heavier things than a small child back at the farm, that was not to say his arms did not hurt once Raphtalia was ready to walk on her feet again. It's just he did not say anything about it to them, seeing it as something pointless to complain about.

Besides, the shield hero was happy to do so anyway, no need to make her feel bad about him helping her. Things got slightly hairy tho when the two of them heard some load talking and Gunther pulled Raphtalia with him into some shrubbery, having a bad feeling about who was speaking. It was a good choice too, a group of bandits walked down the same path they were headed down, decently armed too and had an air to them that said they would gut someone without a second thought.

The two of them stayed quiet as the bandits past by, Gunther overhearing a part of their conversation "So it's true the shield humans some kind of demon? Dang, I wouldn't what to mess with them." A different bandit with a boar spear just rolled their eyes "Oh come on, they just have a shield to fight with, what are they going to do beat ya to death with it?" Gunther did find the idea slightly amusing, well, at least not the death part of it.

"Don't tempt fate mate, who knows maybe they will do just that if we run into them." A bandit just scoffed before putting on an act "Oh great shield demon! Please spare me! Haha! What a damn joke they are!" As they left laughing the two demi-humans poked their heads out of their hiding place before letting out a sigh of relief.

"That was close, a bit to close," Gunther commented, grunting angrily at what the bandits said as he made sure the coast was clear. "anyway it seems we can get moving again. Come Raphtalia." As he said this the raccoon girl became concerned for Gunther as they continue their journey, as he sounded slightly more annoyed than he normally was.

They would spend a night in the woods before finally making it to Lute. Gunther soon felt the same eyes fall onto him as the two demi-humans walked through the village that he knew well from the castle town. _"So those rumors even made it all the way out here, why am I even surprised."_ The shield hero thought as he clapped his hands together "Alright first things first is to find someone with a monster problem." Gunther said to his friend before walking up to a random villager "Hey mind if I-" They simply walked away quickly, ignoring him.

"...okay um, oh sir can I ask abou-" The man just gave him the stink eye and left to drop off the crate they were carrying. Slightly dishearten Gunther groaned like a goat, making Raphtalia blink "Are you okay?" She knew he was bothered by the fact he was being ignored, but the sound he made to express this concerned her. Gunther quickly put on a smile "I'm fine, just a little annoyed that's all. But there has to be someone in this town who can point us in the right direction."

There was no who would help them, in fact, everyone was either dismissive of the two or downright rude. By the end of it, the Demi-Humans had spent the entire day without anything to show for it. Suffice to say Gunther was frustrated, all he wanted was to know where there were some monsters to kill and yet these villagers distrusted him greatly.

Sitting down on a box the young goat grumbled to himself, Raphtalia then tugged on his pants and Gunther looked down to see her holding up her ball. Sighing Gunther stood up from the box and got ready, might as well calm down by playing catch. And he was glad he did, not only was Gunther's mood improved but Raphtalia seemed happier as well.

As they finished up the two overheard a conversation between a coal trader and a disgruntled customer "What do you mean you only have charcoal?!" The customer asked angrily. The trader just sighed "Believe me I'm just as annoyed as you are, not much I can do with that damn monster in the mines. No one is willing to go in there now and the lord has not found anyone who can help." The customer just scoffed "You know this is something our heroes should have dealt with by now. But I guess they don't seem to care about this little village."

Filling a bag with charcoal the trader agreed "Yeah, some heroes they are." Gunther had still been playing with Raphtalia as he listened and grinned. That was how he was going to prove he was a hero, all he and Raphtalia had to do was go into the mine and slay the beast. The young goat then started to fantasize, everyone would see him for the good person he was and maybe give him a chance and respect that he wanted. The shield hero was brought out of this daydreaming when the ball hit him in the face making him snap back to reality.

"Ah! Gunther are you okay!" Raphtalia asked even tho the ball would not have hurt him that much. Gunther just laughed it off before smiling "I'm fine, and I know just where to find a monster to fight!" Saying this Gunther started walking off to the mines with Raphtalia fallow close by, although she started to feel that this might not be such a good idea.

Gunther started to notice this weariness the raccoon girl was giving off and asked her about it "Raphtalia, what's with the nervousness?" Simply told him not to worry, which got him to prepare himself just incase. Once they got to the mine entrance however both of them felt a sense of dread loom over them, making the fur on their ears stand on end. "Okay, that did not feel good at all..." Raphtalia only nodded fearfully in response, the two Demi-Humans feeling the need to turn back the way they came.

But when Gunther put his mind to something, it was hard to get him to stop. "Well we can't really turn back now that we're here...hey look a shed!" Pointing to their left to get the feeling of dread off their minds they saw a wooden shed that looked somewhat beat up, most likely from the late wave.

Walking into the shed Gunther saw a bunch of mining equipment such as rope and pickaxes. Picking up the rope Gunther let his shield absorb it, gaining a new shield. The shield at first glance was nothing special, however, it was the effects it had that piqued his interest. The first part was that when equipped it allowed him to send out a string of rope, very straightforward. Its second ability, however, was what really surprised him, air strike shield.

Raphtalia watched as Gunther cupped his chin in thought as he read his status Journal before extending his hand outward and shouting "Air Strike Shield!" Once saying that a Large green shield appeared a few feet in front of him, Gunther staring at it for a moment before starting to get excited. "Oh yes, this will come in handy."

"Why's that?" Raphtalia asked, while she understood that he could extend his defending reach with the ability it did not seem that impressive. Grinning like a child who got away with taking the last cookie in the jar he looked over at her "Let me give a demonstration." Shouting Air strike again the shield appeared once more, this time flying forward into the wall with a loud heavy thud.

Raphtalia was amazed by that while Gunther just jumped in place, pumping his fist in the air, "Yeah! Once I read air strike I knew I had to try that. And looks like I was right!" The previous atmosphere of worry was replaced with excitement at this small discovery but it certainly lightened up their moods, Gunther laughing loudly as a result.

With this new instilled mood the Demi-Humans felt comfortable enough to enter the mines to slay the monster that lurks inside, bad feelings be damned. As they got past the light from the sun Gunther made a ball of flame in his hand to act like a torch and as they walked deeper into the mines Raphtalia just started to feel that same wave of dread from before.

Gunther himself felt it too, but for the sake of his companion, he made sure to act brave even tho he was a little scared. "Well this place seems nice," The shield hero comment to break the tense atmosphere "No wonder a monster would like it, it's dark, foreboding and cold. Just like its described in most adventure stories!"

Raphtalia simply stays silent as Gunther started to go on a tangent about whatever came to his mind, even she can tell this was the young goat's way of coping with the nervousness. The young girl then thought of something she had been meaning to say to them "So um, Gunther, Thanks, for everything." The shield hero looked back at her with a smile "Well it was the right thing to do, I couldn't just leave you with that slaver to die."

"besides, your good with a sword too, it's a win win!" That made Raphtalia smile, while she did not always want to fight the young goat never held it against her and was happy to take a break for her sake. "Y-Yeah I guess it is...Can I ask you a question, if you don't mind that is." Gunther just nodded "Shoot."

"Well I heard you talk about your mother before but are your parents...you know..." Gunther stopped walking at that before speaking quietly "If you're asking if they're dead, then no their alive...at least when I last saw them they were, a lot can happen in 5 years after all." Raphtalia could hear the sadness in his voice and chose not to push him further about the topic.

They were silent the rest of the trip through the tunnel, neither wishing to bother the other. Soon they came upon were the mining was being done and stared in awe, green minerals and coal could be seen sticking out of the ground or in the walls, the metals reflecting back the light that shined from the ceiling.

As the two Demi-humans stared at the sight before them Gunther looked around and groaned at the lack of monsters. "Great, alright let's take a look around. That beast has got to be around here somewhere." As Gunther searched Raphtalia took some time to rest by sitting on a rock before noticing a trail of large footprints, very large dog like footprints.

Raphtalia stood up to get a closer look as Gunther started to get frustrated "Okay, how hard is it to find a monster in a cave!' The young goat shouted, his voice echoing throughout the mine. The two Demi-Humans then froze in place as a loud growling sound could be heard as it was shortly joined by two others.

Out of the darkness was the head of a dog with red glowing eyes and a single horn on its head before two more heads popped out of the shadows alongside them snarling. Raphtalia didn't even need to see that rest of the beast to know what it was, a Cerberus, the same beast that killed her mother and father. "P-Please no..." She said fearfully as she stared wide-eyed at the three-headed beast as its full form came into view. Gunther saw how the girl was shaking and quickly pulled her to his side, opening up his Journal before paling.

The Cerberus was at least 10 levels higher than them, with the stats to match. Holding up his shield both Demi-Humans were shaking in fear, knowing full well that this was something they could not deal with. Soon Raphtalia screamed out in terror as the Cerberus charged at them only for Gunther to quickly shout Air strike shield to block the beast. The Cerberus growled fearsomely while trying to shatter the obstacle in its way.

Raphtalia was crying and breaking down by this point clinging to Gunther for dear life "Please! Not again!" Gunther looked down and heard the shield green shield shatter as the Cerberus charge at them with deadly intent, just barely able to pick up Raphtalia in his arms and block the swipe of its paw. With Raphtalia absolutely terrified Gunther tired to put stay calm but was quickly finding himself panic more and more.

The Cerberus then tired to bit his head off making him use his free hand to set the horned head on fire, the beast screaming in pain before another head bit down hard onto his right shoulder. Gunther cried out in agony as blood soaked into his clothes before he burned the head with a fireball forcing it to let go.

With the Cerberus failing around trying to put out the fire on it heads the Gunther with Raphtalia in his arms tired to make a run for it only for the beast to block their way backing them into a corner near the edge. Making a sudden stop Gunther tripped on a rock and fell off the edge, the two Demi-Humans screaming as they plummeted down into the water below.

Raphtalia stared up with tears in her eyes as she screamed, falling into the water with Gunther. The Cerberus looking over the edge reminded her of when she saw her parents ripped apart. When they hit the water Gunther did his best to stay afloat with both a bleeding wound and the crying girl in his arms, swimming over to dry land. Dragging himself out of the water Gunther coughed out some water that he swallowed as Raptalia did that same.

"T-That was to-Agh!" Gunther grunted as he gripped his bleeding shoulder, his defense barely making it so it was not broken, but by no means did it make it any less painful. Raphtalia was still crying and shouted out in concern "Gunther your hurt!" The young goat just gave them a forced smiled "D-Don't worry I'm fin-Agh!...Okay...maybe I'm not fine." As he said this they heard the Cerberus howl out, clearly searching for them.

Gripping his wound Gunther racked his brain as tried to think of a way out of this, he made a promise to Erhard to be careful and now look where he has gotten himself and Raphtalia into, a mine with a Cerberus out for their blood.

"W-What are we going to do?!" Gunther looked over at Raphtalia when she said that, seeing that she was scared out of her mind. Thinking hard Gunther knew that in a dead sprint the Cerberus would catch up to them, fighting it was off the table too as even if they could get a clean hit Raphtalia was just too frightened to do anything right now. Soon Gunther settled on one option, it was risky but it would ensure that Raphtalia could get away safely, as for him...

"R-Raphtalia I got a plan, but you're going to have to follow everything I say." Raphtalia did not like the way he said that at all, but nodded none the less as she trusted that he knew what he was doing. "Alright, so once we get back up there I'm going to set that overgrown dog's heads on fire, as soon as I do so your run as fast as you can and don't look back alright. I'll be behind you so don't worry."

Gunther felt bad for lying about that last part, if she was going to get out of her he had to do this. Aiming the rope shield up at the ledge he sent out a string of rope to grapple onto and let Raphtalia cling to his back as he climbed the rope. Once they were back up the Cerberus quickly spotted them and growled, ready to rip them to shreds for the pain Gunther inflicted onto it.

Raphtalia whimpered as Gunther held up his hand. "On my word you ran okay?" When the girl nodded the young goat shouted out at the beast. "Hey, you smell of wet fur and burnt wood Mut!" Whether the Cerberus understood him or not didn't matter, as it soon was charging at full force "Run!" Gunther shouted at Raphtalia as he unleashed a torrent of flame into the Cerberus's faces making howl in pain.

Following Gunther words, she jumped off his back and ran with the young goat close behind. Before they could make it to the tunnel that led outside the Cerberus tired to pounce on Raphtalia right over Gunther's head only to be meet with his air strike shield smashing into it. Raphtalia turned around and saw that she and Gunther were separated "Just go I'll catch up!" that was just a straight up lie, but Raphtalia was just too scared to pick up on it as she kept on running. Once his shield went down Gunther caste a fireball the beast to gain its attention, getting ready to buy Raphtalia time, even if he has to give up his life to do so.

Raphtalia for her part just kept running only stopping when she tripped. She got up with a yelp before realizing something when she turned around, Gunther wasn't there. Panicking she heard shouting and frantic yelling quickly figuring out what was happening. Gunther knew that if they just tried to run they would have been killed, so he stayed behind to keep the Cerberus occupied.

This shocked her, but thinking back she should have known, Gunther would rather let himself get killed then have her be harmed in any way at all. That same kindness and protectiveness that young goat had shown her was going to be his downfall, all because he wanted her to be safe.

Looking back down the tunnel she can almost see the light of the sun at the end while Gunther yelling became screams of pain as the beast roared as the two did battle. Raphtalia did not want to fight the Cerberus, she had seen what it had done to her parents, but when thinking of them she also thought about what it was doing to Gunther, what it will do to Gunther.

The thought of losing Gunther made her freeze, after he bought her off the slavers hands she wondered what he was going to do with her. Showing her kindness was not what she was expecting, but from the meals he cooked for her and helping her sleep at night, the medicine he made to cure his illness. Gunther brought back something she lost, happiness and hope as well as many more.

And there he was giving up his life just so she can live, just like her mother and father. With tears in her eyes she pulled out her sword and ran back the way she came, Raphtalia was not going to let Gunther die.

Gunther for his part was in really bad shape as he got launched into the wall by the three headed dogs hind legs. Falling onto the floor the shield hero forced himself up from the floor and as the beast charged at him he hit the ground letting the Cerberus hit its heads on the wall before sending a torrent of flame to burn it side.

The beast then turned around as Gunther raised his shield to block one of the head before headbutting another as a loud cracking sound echoed out. The head then hung lifelessly as the Cerberus snarled before pouncing on the young goat. Pinned underneath the beast Gunther could feel it weight on his chest, his eyes going wide as it tried to bit his head off.

Raising his shield he was able to stick his shield into its jaws, before screaming out as the other head bit down on his wounded should again. The world around him seemed to get fuzzy, the edges of his vision turning black, Gunther wasn't sure how much blood he had lost but the Demi-Human couldn't care less as the beast was crushing him under its weight.

Just before Gunther was about to give in he heard someone shout out his name "Gunther, Don't die!" Wish wide eyes Gunther felt his whole body go rigid as the Cerberus relieved some pressure off him before Raphtalia stabbed behind its knee.

Roaring it kicked the young girl with it's one good leg sending her flying and knocking the wind out of her. Seeing Raphtalia getting kicked and the beast limping around to face her Gunther pulled what strength he had left to grab its head. Burning it until its eyes were damaged beyond repair and doing the same to the other one. Blinded the Cerberus flailed around wildly as Gunther got up to his feet uneasily feeling like he could collapse at any second"Raphtalia!"

Getting up and seeing the state of the Cerberus she charged at full speed and cut across the beast's belly, it blood spraying all over her as the Cerberus screamed out it last cry before at last falling still. Gunther stood still as even breathing hurt, staring at the now dead beast before Raphtalia yelled and started stabbing the corpse over and over again.

Slowly moving over to Raphtalia he stood next to her as she kept on stabbing the dead beast with anger and tears in her eyes. Gunther couldn't stand to watch anymore and painfully knelt down and grabbed her arm. She tried to resist but soon the girl just let go the of the blade and hugged Gunther "G-Gunther!"

The young goat grunted, her embrace hurting him given his wounds "H-Hey calm down, you don't have to worry." Gunther said brushing the crying girl's hair "Please don't do that again, I don't know what I'll do if you died and leave me alone! Gunther!"

The demi-human stood there in thought as he held Raphtalia, Gunther soon hugged her back despite the pain "I'm not going to die or leave you alone alright, but that does not mean I won't get hurt, I am the shield hero after all..." Raphtalia simply hugged him harder "J-Just, at least promise that you won't do something like that again." She pleaded with him, digging her head deeper into his chest.

"...I promise, I promise won't be so reckless from now on and never leave your side." Raphtalia still clung to him crying into his shirt, not wanting to let him go. Gunther did not mind, yeah it hurt like hell but if it meant making her feel better then he'll let the raccoon girl hug him as long as she liked.

Soon she did let go, the two demi-humans then cut up the Cerberus for parts before they made their way out of the mines. Once outside they saw that it was almost night time, the two getting to see the sun go down in a beautiful display. Gunther then started to laugh to himself, it was a painful laugh for the goat given his condition but he didn't care.

Raphtalia looked over at him in worry "Are you okay?" Gunther was able to calm himself down and chuckled "Yeah, well as okay I could be, I'm just happy that we were still alive!" The shield hero then started to laugh once more, Raphtalia soon joining in as she too saw how that could be funny. Two young Demi-Humans fighting and killing a three headed monster, very absurd.

But all that mattered in the end for them was the fact they came out of it on top, even if they by all means should have died. Then again, when you're the shield hero and on an adventure, no one should expect to come out of it unscathed. And these two, they came out of it a lot stronger then they went in, not only in level. But also as friends, and that made Gunther happier than anything so far.


	11. Notice

So I have decided to write this story from the end of chapter 4 and onward, mostly as I don't feel satisfied with what I wrote and that it feels just to close to cannon. Now while this might mean I won't be posting anything for a while as I try to write out a plot for this, I will say the story will not fallow the events of cannon exactly but will keep in line with what happens in canon like the waves.

However I will tell you that this time around Gunther will not have an accusation set against him by Malty, but rather she lets it slip that he's a slave and then a small crisis issues in which the other three heroes would come to Gunther defense as he is at risk of being sold off again since it turns out he was summoned before the waves happened, and the farmer who owned him had died due to fending off wolves on his farmstead thus leaving Gunther a masterless Demi-Human which is illegal Melromarc.

After some arguing and talk between the four heroes about how they got summoned Gunther is able to gain his freedom as it turned out that his previous master wrote in his will that Gunther is to be given his freedom and be allowed to live in the Demi-Human Village Rurorona.

While he had his freedom and cherished it with the other three heroes Malty tells him the truth that she tipped off the church. Before Gunther could ask why she explains that while the churches offer was good Malty found it better to use Gunther order to gain the throne, mostly by 'helping' him so she looked good in the eyes of the Nations like Siltvelt.

At first Gunther decline to work with her she brings up that while he might be free that does not mean that 'accidents' don't happen. She also would tell him to not try to tell anyone of this conversation as it was sure to end very badly for the both of them, remarking that if he was going basically bring the church down on them, she might as well take the shield demon down with her.

Now with a shut mouth Malty states that it's best if she is no longer his companion, both because of the church which onto what she's doing and Matly does not want to be around a Demi-Human and joins Motoyasu's again party leaving Gunther stunned and seeing now that while he might not be a slave by law, he was still under the mercy of the political powers around him.

From here he becomes slightly distraught and while out on a walk in the rain bumps into a small, scared Raccoon Demi-Human in rags. That's how the chapter(s?) will go down roughly so expect to see that when it's done. Also if you wish to help me out with this send me a pm and I'll discuss it more detail. I hope you understand this and are willing to wait, I promise to do my best.


	12. Noticr two

Alright if have not yet noticed the first rewriten chapter has been made and posted under the name, A Demi-Human hero. This was a lot of fun to write and hopefuly I make sure im able to keep getting these chapters to you all in a semi consistent manner. For all those who have fallowed or fav this story i hope you take the time to check out the rewrite, belive when i say its just a little better. Thank you for reading this story and hope to see you read the other one as well. Now, to figuring out what to write next and how to write it.


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